Harry Potter: The Avenger
by kb0
Summary: Harry becomes disillusioned with his world after defeating Voldemort and decides to go traveling, ending up in another dimension that's similar but not quite the same as his original one. He makes friends with the Avengers.
1. The Brave New World

**Title:** Harry Potter: The Avenger  
**When:** After the final battle, but before the epilogue of book 7.  
**Rated:** T (PG-15), Sexual Situations but nothing explicit  
**Summary:** Harry becomes disillusioned with his world after defeating Voldemort and decides to go traveling, ending up in another dimension that's similar but not quite the same as his original one. He makes friends with the Avengers.  
**A/N:** This is something I felt like doing just to write a story with a different flavor. It's not really deep, just fun. It's my take on what might happen if Harry landed in the end of the Avenger movie and how he'd change more than himself. This should be 7 medium length chapters.  
**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter is owned by someone commonly known as JKR. The Avengers are owned by someone commonly known as Marvel. Anything that looks like theirs is. No money is made from this work.

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**Harry Potter: The Avenger**

**Chapter 1: The Brave New World**

Harry checked his list one last time. Everything was crossed off and he couldn't think of anything he'd truly regret not having later. Deciding to get it over with, he closed his multi-compartment trunk and shrank it down so he could put it in his pocket. He had everything in there that he thought he'd need and then some. Donning his family Invisibility Cloak, he Apparated to the Ministry of Magic.

It was late at night, but he still took care not to draw any attention to himself; a few people were still there, mostly security. As he made his way down to level ten, he considered once again what was driving this extreme, and most would say insane, action.

After the war, it wasn't but a single month before the "old" families started pushing for power and running things again, despite the efforts of Kingsley Shacklebolt. There was really just too much corruption and enough of the Death Eaters had survived and managed to stay respectable - again, despite Shacklebolt's best efforts. Even Harry's popularity and speaking out about the need for justice had not made any significant difference. He was thoroughly disillusioned with the Wizarding world.

Still, that wasn't quite enough to drive him away. His friends hadn't made it easy on him.

Sure, he was happy for Ron and Hermione getting together and professing their undying love for each other a year ago, right after the final battle. They had even been married recently. Personally, he thought they were blinded by emotions - or more probably hormones - and his advice to them to not do it had been soundly ignored and even soured their friendship. The three were still friends, but not like they used to be.

Then there was Ginny. She was still a lovely young woman and great kisser, but the war had changed both of them. They had tried to resume their relationship after the final battle, but it hadn't really worked out. Ginny was no longer the mostly carefree girl she used to be and Harry knew he had changed as well, although he had a hard time trying to describe the change … he just knew he was different. He thought more cynical, but he suspected there was more. After six months, they had both decided it was best to only be casual friends.

For the last six months, Harry had tried to make other friends, but his fame got in the way. His life was simply screwed up he had decided.

While he could have simply moved to another country, he really doubted it would help all that much. His name was known over most of the Wizarding world. All he could think that was left was either suicide or leaving this world through some magical way to another world. He supposed those two choices were almost synonymous, but not quite. What he was about to do might be foolhardy, but he had determined to do it anyway. Worst case, he would be with his parents. Best case, he'd have a new life and maybe even find Sirius - or so a small part of him hoped.

Walking into the Death Chamber, he went up to the arch and stood for a moment. On his left hand was the ring with the Resurrection Stone, something he'd gone back to retrieve. In his right hand was the Death Stick. On his shoulders was the Invisibility Cloak. With those three items, the voices from the arch were a little clearer … they were calling to him and he could understand them perfectly - unlike at the end of his fifth year when they were indistinct murmurs.

Most of the voices wanted him to rescue them, but a few wanted him to join them. That first set gave him pause. Was it possible Sirius was stuck in limbo? Using the "Death Stick", he tried, "Accio Sirius Black". Nothing happened, not that he was surprised, but he felt he'd had to try.

Shaking his head and determining to still go through with it all, he gripped the wand and cloak a little tighter. Three steps and he was in the arch and being pulled the rest of the way. He felt stretched and blinded by the dizzying light show, but soon he was dropped to his feet hard, causing them to sting and him to fall on his arse.

Looking around, he decided he wasn't dead - probably. It didn't look anything like the descriptions he'd been told about heaven or hell. He appeared to be in the end of a corridor of dingy white tile and an old dim flickering light. In fact, dingy was the best description for everything he saw.

Getting up, he put away his cloak and started to walk only to hear a thumping and a strange sound. If he didn't know any better, he'd have said it was a train. After a few seconds thought, he did remember that London had underground trains. Could he have been sent to another part of London? He knew this wasn't like the "train station" where he'd had his conversation with Dumbledore last year.

Just so he'd know later, he transformed one of the old white tiles on the wall to have "HP" on it.

Starting his journey, he turned a corner and saw people in the distance. At least they weren't aliens, he thought. A closer inspection revealed that they were dressed much like the place he had just left. Perhaps they were slightly different, but not by much. A teen about his age even walked by and his T-shirt had English on it.

A few minutes later, he came to a stand that sold magazines and newspapers. It didn't take long for him to realize that almost everything proclaimed something about New York. The headline of one newspaper glamorized the new Stark Tower, whatever that was.

At least he knew where he was and he had a clue as to what he'd require for basic needs. He was fortunate that he could use his native tongue here. The only worry was he hadn't gone far enough to get away from his problems because he knew that the American Wizarding world knew who he was.

A few minutes later he found a restroom that he'd been looking for. Taking the largest stall that had a handicap sign on it, he pulled his trunk out of his pocket and enlarged it. Opening the smallest compartment, he rummaged around in it for his money. Just in case he only traveled to another country, Harry had converted some of his money into the major currencies of the world. He didn't think he'd need this, but he had enough money that it was no big deal. Grabbing a wad of US dollars, he put that in his pocket and then put his trunk back so he could resume his quest.

The train station was large and really quite grand with its old style, but he didn't tarry and continued on and soon he was in the daylight. Not sure what to do, he decided to walk around and see the sights, look for anything magical, and try to get a feel for what his options might be. He'd also look for a place to stay. He had enough money to be good for at least a week without any problem, or so he thought, and he had the other money he could easily convert. At the worst, he'd have to find some place that bought gold and then sell his Galleons there, assuming he didn't get into trouble with the magical government.

— — —

Harry had been walking around for maybe an hour and had also had a hotdog and soda from a street vendor when something red and gold went flying by very quickly not too high over the street. Like everyone else, he turned and saw the thing go flying to the top of the building he'd seen on the newspaper: Stark Tower.

Walking to the side and leaning against the wall, he thought about what he'd seen, or thought he'd seen. It was like a man had been literally flying. He would have dismissed the idea immediately, except that he'd seen Voldemort do something like that barely a year ago, and if Harry pulled out one of his brooms, he could fly too.

Perhaps the most interesting thought was that after a brief moment, everyone else seemed to collectively shrug and return to whatever they had been doing, as if that was normal. Also, there was no magical Obliviation Squad running around trying to hide what looked like a blatant use of magic in public.

As he was about to continue on himself, he saw a man thrown out of the top of Stark Tower and another red and gold man-shaped thing go flying after him. A few seconds later the two merged into one red and gold thing, which was now obviously a man in some sort of a suit. He barely managed to avoid crashing onto the street before he was flying back up to the top of the tower.

Continuing to watch, not having anything else better to do, Harry saw what looked like the beginning of a fight, and then a beam of light shoot up off the top of Stark Tower, where a hole in the sky opened up. The red and gold man shot up at the same time "things" came out of the hole and flying down towards the ground.

It wasn't until he heard screaming that he realized that others had seen the sight too, as well as all the "chariot looking things" that came out of the "hole" were being ridden by something and shooting whatever they could hit on the ground, including people.

Frightened at the horde, or really a stampede, of people running and trying to get away, he did the only thing he could do and stepped over and back into a small doorway as people ran past him.

Once the initial rush was past, he stayed where he was and watched, although he did discreetly pull his wand out and keep it hidden behind his leg.

Soon large worm things started to come out of the "hole" in the sky. The man in the red and gold suit flew by again, soon followed a big green guy who was swatting the aliens around. The Viking looking guy with a hammer looked like something right out of mythology.

If that wasn't bizarre enough, his attention was soon grabbed by three people who came running down the street and started fighting not too far from him. The guy in the suit of red, white, and blue with a shield was really handing out the damage with a metal shield of all things, while also trying to help normal people who were stuck in cars get to safety. Giving him backup was some guy with a bow and a quiver of arrows on his back, but at least he was using guns for the moment. The last couldn't be missed: a woman who looked about five years older than he was in black leather with red-auburn hair - someone Harry thought was really good looking. She was taking down the aliens with a pistol in each hand and it didn't look like she ever missed, shooting each alien on the head.

Harry sighed. Knowing his history, he was about to get involved, so he cast a spell on his face to hide from cameras.

The guy with the shield moved over to try to help some people stuck on a bus. That broke the defense of the three just enough that a surge from the aliens put the woman in peril, one she didn't see behind her. As she was about to be speared in the back by an alien and shot by another, Harry whipped his wand up and summoned her. She went flying and the alien with a gun ended up shooting the alien with the spear.

Harry slowed her down and caught her as she turned around and put a gun in his face. "Hey, don't shoot. I just saved you from getting killed."

She turned the top half of her body and looked back as she raised her other pistol. Two shots removed the ones who had been trying to kill her. "My thanks. Who are you?" she asked as she emptied her pistols into another small group of aliens, dropping the small group before she paused to reload.

"Harry, Harry Potter. Who are you and what the bloody hell is going on?"

"I'm Natasha Romanova. Can't you tell we're being invaded?" She started firing again while standing in front of him like a shield.

"Err, I'm not from around here, so I didn't know if this was normal or not," he managed to get out.

"Definitely not normal," she answered. "How did you bring me over here?"

How did he answer that? Well, if the portal had really taken him to a different world, because he was sure he'd have heard of people like these if they had been in his world, then he supposed the Secrecy of Magic didn't apply. In fact, it seemed probable that he was the only wizard here - unless Sirius was here somewhere.

"I have some special powers of my own. Would you like help?" he offered. "I might could even get rid of the flying worms, maybe."

"You would be safer if you took shelter," she advised him as she paused to reload yet again. However, she'd been in this position long enough that the aliens were starting to come to them.

While she reloaded, Harry stepped to the side and started sending blasting curses at the aliens to knock them back. The ones hit in the head didn't get back up; the ones hit in the body got up very slowly - obviously very injured - and didn't seem as keen for battle.

Natasha looked at him for a brief second in admiration. "Thanks. You could be useful. Can you help us get those people off the bus and to shelter?"

"Where?" he asked.

"If we can get them to the next door to your left, they can take shelter in there."

"What about him?" Harry asked, pointing to the guy with the shield. "He seems to have some sort of plan, although the aliens are keeping him busy."

"That's Captain America, but you can call him Steve. He'll adapt to our plan," she told him confidently. "I'll clear a path and you run over there and lead them to this side of the street and into the door. If they don't fight back, I don't think the aliens will give them much thought and the three of us will keep the aliens busy."

Harry considered the bus for a moment. "How about you protect me from right here for a minute and let me the try something. If it doesn't work, we'll do it your way."

"Fine, but make it quick," she told him as she started shooting more aliens.

Concentrating so he'd make the spells bigger, he hoped, he cast a Featherweight Charm on the bus. It wouldn't make its weight like a feather, the bus was too big, but he hoped it was enough to help him. Then, he cast a Levitation charm and with some struggle, it rose a few inches, which was good enough. Finally, he moved his wand to direct it and the bus started to slowly move towards their side of the street and the door Natasha had pointed out.

Steve did move out of the way when he saw the bus move. In fact, he smoothly stepped to the side and bashed an alien with his shield into the bus's path so it was hit twice. The two hits left the alien lying on the ground and not moving. Looking around, he saw Natasha defending a young man who seemed to be the source of the bus moving. Since it was going in a good direction, he didn't try to stop it and instead started to fight his way to them. He saw that Clint was doing the same.

It had taken longer than Harry thought it would, but the bus eventually bumped into the building, the rear touching and the front a few feet out so the door could be opened and people leave. Canceling the charm and letting the bus drop, he almost wilted in relief as that had taken a lot out of him, but it was the safest course for the people on the bus. "I'm going to have to rest for a few minutes," he told her. "I'll help the people off because I can't do much more than that at the moment."

Tiredly, he jogged slowly towards the bus. Fortunately, the guy with the arrows on his back was there as well, now firing with an alien gun he'd picked up. Steve was almost there and Natasha had followed him. The three of them formed a semi-circle around the front of the bus and prevented all the aliens from coming closer.

Harry pounded on the bus door. "Hey, open up so you can get out of there. You have to leave. It'll be a lot safer in the building." Slowly, the door opened, but the bus driver looked really scared. Harry stepped into the bus and shouted. "Listen up. It'll be a lot safer in the building, so hurry off."

To start it, he saw an older woman in the front seat and took her hand. She smiled at him and rose. Harry helped her down the steps and that was all it took for the others to follow too, starting with the driver. Harry held the door to a bank open and encouraged them all.

As the last person from the bus made it in and Harry stepped out from behind the bus, a guy a little bigger than Hagrid that was very muscular and very green dropped beside him. With a grunt, he picked up the front of the bus and moved it over a few feet so the door to the building was completely protected. He looked at Harry intently for a second before leaping away.

"What the bloody hell was that?!" Harry looked to Natasha and it wasn't until then that he realized there was a lull in the fighting and the others were looking at him.

"That was the Hulk; he's on our side, don't try to hurt him or he'll hurt you," she explained. Gesturing towards the group one a time, she told him. "I mentioned Captain America, or Steve. This is Clint Barton, otherwise known as Hawkeye. The guy in the red and gold suit flying around is known as Ironman, or Tony Stark. The Viking with the hammer is Thor. That's our team; we're the Avengers.

"Everyone," she addressed the other two Avengers, "this is Harry Potter and he's volunteered to help us."

"So kid," Steve asked with a hint of demand, "how did you move that bus across the street?"

"Magic," Harry said with a shrug.

"Magic?" Steve looked like he didn't believe him.

"I believe him," Clint said, "especially after what Loki did to me."

"Point," Steve conceded. "We need a plan," he said just as one of the worms flew by slowly and bringing more aliens to them.

"If you three can do without me for a bit, I'll try to get rid of the worms," Harry told them as he pulled his trunk out of his pocket. Hastily, because aliens were starting to drop from the flying chariots, he pulled out one of his Firebolts and returned the trunk to his pocket.

Steve blocked a bolt of energy fired at them with his shield and asked, "Did you really just enlarge and then shrink a steamer trunk? And what's with the old wooden broom?"

Harry smirked at him. "That's a lot more than a steamer trunk, but basically, yeah." He ignored the question about the broom and turned to Natasha who was looking amused at the conversation as she took out an alien who was trying to flank them. "Do you have a way to tell the others flying around that I'm on your side?"

"I can tell Tony. Smite a few aliens in Thor's presence and you won't have any problem with him," she told him, amused with herself for no reason Harry could comprehend.

"Right. Oh, if this New York is like I think it is," like where I came from Harry thought but didn't want to say," there's an ocean near here. Which way and how far?"

Natasha looked at him for a brief moment at the strange question but pointed and said, "A couple of miles that way and you'd be in the water."

"Thanks, I'll be back as soon as I can," he told her as he mounted the broom and then took off quickly.

"Too many strange things in one day," Clint muttered, summing up all their feelings on the matter.

Harry had no trouble catching up to the worm that had flown past him recently. Now that he was in the air, he had a few new worries, namely from the flying chariots and their gunners. He took a couple out before he landed on the back of the worm.

He was about to blast one more chariot when it received a blast from a different direction and the guy in the red and gold flying suit landed next to him.

"You're Potter?" he asked, his voice human and yet mechanical at the same time.

"Right in one," Harry said with a smirk as he looked at the work beneath him, determining that metal armor or exoskeleton or whatever it was attached to the worm would do just fine.

"What are you going to?"

"I'm going to see if it can swim or if it drowns," Harry answered. "If it can swim in the ocean, at least I've bought us some time."

"Really?" The man sounded both surprised and amused. "This I gotta see." He suddenly held up both hands and blasted an alien who was trying to run into them at high speed.

"I'm going to charge the metal armor here, and since your suit is metal, you probably want to move unless you want to find yourself at the bottom of the ocean five miles from here in a moment," Harry explained.

"We wouldn't want that," Ironman mused. "I'll protect your back and if you can do this, I know of at least two others we can do this to." He jumped and flew along about ten feet over Harry's head and blasted any aliens that came near.

Harry thought about the coordinates he wanted and cast "_Portus_", glad he'd learned the spell in the last year. When the blue glow faded, he hopped on his broom and floated then quickly cast the activation part of the spell.

The worm was suddenly gone in a large pop. The air around them rushing into the empty space the worm had been in sent him tumbling. With effort, Harry righted himself and looked around.

Tony had already recovered and was flying over. "You need to be a little more careful with the negative pressure and backdraft, kid, but good job however you did that. Want to try again?"

"Sure, lead on," Harry said with a maniacal grin.

Ironman sped away and Harry lowered himself on the broom and followed the man in the suit higher in the air above the buildings. It was easier to avoid hitting buildings up here when he had to avoid being blasted himself, but Harry thought the flying was more fun when he was going after the aliens.

Tony suddenly dove and Harry followed, seeing the worm they were heading towards. Just before they arrived, Hulk and Thor landed on the worm's back. Tony changed directions and went down another street. Harry followed, assuming he was letting those two Avengers handle that worm and heading to another - he was correct.

This worm was trying to thread through various buildings, making it more challenging, but the two kept up. Harry finally landed on it while Tony flew overhead and kept the aliens away as best he could. At the end, he activated the Portkey on the worm's armor as he did his best to rocket straight up. He avoided the tumble this time and Ironman had too.

"Great work, kid. We've got a lot more of these flying chariots though," Tony told him as he avoided a shot and sent a repulsor blast back.

"Maybe, let me check in with Natasha and the rest. I see them and I'll take out a few more chariots on the way down." Harry leaned down and flew away quickly.

Tony caught up a few seconds later. "She says they do need a little help."

Sure enough, the three were surrounded and fighting hard. Harry flew by and took out four in a strafing run before turning around and coming back. Tony had done the same, except that he stopped at the far side, having better maneuverability. Harry went by again, taking out the three around Natasha and Clint, giving them more breathing room. Landing, he took out one more alien before walking over, the area free of fighting for the moment.

"Thanks for the help," Steve said, breathing hard. "We've still got to shut down that generator and close that portal. Ideas?"

When no one said anything for a few seconds, Harry volunteered, "How about we fly up there and blast it?"

"It has its own shield," Tony told him. "I found that out the hard way."

"Can you survive in space?" Harry asked.

"Yes, and?" Tony asked, wondering where this was going, as did everyone else.

"If you can't get to the machine, take what the machine's sitting on and get it out of here, straight up, until it's above the earth," Harry pointed to it. "All of those aliens look like they need air to breath. I had this problem in a house where we couldn't remove a picture from the wall, so we removed the picture by removing the wall."

"I like the idea," Tony said, "but it's going to be hard to hold onto it while cutting the roof free."

"I'll go with you and cut the roof or whatever it's on," Harry said.

"Take me to the top of the next building and I'll give you cover," Clint told them as he pulled the bow off of his back. "Also, be on the lookout for Loki; he's around here somewhere."

"Natasha and I will continue down here," Steve said and Natasha agreed.

Tony grabbed Clint and took him up while Harry flew to the top of Stark Tower on his broom, taking out a couple of chariots on the way.

Arriving, he saw Thor and who he presumed was Loki fighting. He landed near the portal generator and looked it over. An older guy came out from behind cover and Harry stunned him. Deciding to test what was going on, he cast a Blasting Hex. It hit the shield Tony had talked about, but the shield looked and felt familiar to him.

"I'd say a radius of about nine feet, or three meters, if you prefer that," Tony said when he landed.

"Now that I see what's here, there may be a better way," Harry said as he did some revealing spells on the generator shield. "Watch my back for minute. Blast that guy Thor is fighting if you have time."

Harry heard Tony doing things, but he did his best to ignore it and work on the shield. It felt like a magical ward, which was very strange considering this was technology. Trying a couple of things Bill Weasley had taught him, he was surprised to see the shield waver. "I think I almost have it," he called out as he tried again, this time with more power. To his amazement, the shield brightened and then disappeared. "Got it! Now how do you shut it down?"

"Step back," Tony told him before he blasted the antennae dish on top and then the top half above the small middle.

Harry barely raised a shield in time, but he saw the main beam that kept the portal open shut off and the hole started closing. It didn't take long before it closed completely and the sky looked normal. The little blue-white cube that had been in the middle turned itself off and fell to the roof.

The two walked to the edge of the building and looked down. There were still a few aliens flying around, but not many. "I guess we've still got a little cleanup, kid. Up for it?"

"Sure," Harry told, happy that he'd been able to help, yet getting very tired from all the magic he'd expended in a short time.

"Wait a minute, I think I found the boss on the radio." Tony went silent for a minute and looked like he was having a conversation with himself based on his head movements. He turned to Harry after a moment and sounded like he was amused. "I'm not sure if the Director is more happy or upset with what you just did. Apparently, someone ordered a nuclear bomb dropped here to stop the invasion so the director just shot down one of two very expensive jets that was coming for us, something that now wasn't needed. On the other hand, with the portal closed, the other jet has been recalled and we're all safe. You helped us dodge a very big bullet, kid. That also means the Director wants to meet and talk to you too."

Harry looked at him and blinked. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised that someone wanted to talk to him for what he'd done this afternoon, but he couldn't help but be a little worried about it. Apparently, he telegraphed his emotions.

"Don't worry, kid," Tony told him. "Director Fury's tough and he looks mean and he's got a lot of people under his command, oh, and he's got this big helicarrier that you just gotta see to believe. But like I said, don't worry, we've got your back like you had ours." Tony lightly patted him on the back, which almost knocked him off the building. "Anyway, let's go take out the last few aliens then get the rest of our teammates up here. I think all of us would like to tell Loki a few words about what we think about his actions."

A groan came from behind them and the two twirled, one with repulsors glowing and the other with a wand that glowed at the tip.

"My head," the older man said before he looked up. "You destroyed it. That shouldn't have been possible but I'm glad you did."

"Dr Selvig, are you normal again?"

Harry looked at Tony and thought that had to be the stupidest question he'd heard all day.

"Yeah. Whatever Loki did to control me is gone now."

Tony relaxed and Harry lowered his wand as well, but still wasn't completely sure what was going on.

"It was Harry, right?" Tony didn't stop to listen for an answer. "Let's go mop up the last of the aliens, Harry."

Harry followed after Tony. Soon they found a rhythm of Harry getting their attention and Tony blasting them from behind. It didn't take long to finish off the remaining flying chariots. Their aerial tour also showed them very few aliens on the ground; those were soon defeated as well, mostly thanks to the Hulk.

Dropping down to the street, Tony grabbed Steve while Harry moved forward on his broom and let Natasha climb on behind him like they were on a motorcycle. The four flew up to the top of Stark Tower, with Tony also picking up Clint on the way. The Hulk followed on his own.

Inside what used to be Tony's living area, they found Thor standing guard over Loki, who looked much worse for the wear. At Thor's feet was Loki's staff.

"Oh look, the Avengers," Loki said mockingly.

"I said, keep quiet, brother, or you will feel my hammer again," Thor said threateningly as he held up said hammer.

Hulk growled at him.

"Or I could give you to Hulk to play with," Thor told him. "I don't think he could kill you, but we could find out."

Hulk growled enthusiastically as if he wanted to test that theory.

"Allow me to help, _Silenco_!" Harry said as he did the proper spiral and jab wand motions.

Thor took a step back. "A Vitki! I didn't know there were any left."

"A what?" Steve asked.

"A Vitki, a user of Seid like father Odin, a wizard," Thor explained.

Harry looked around not sure what to do. He thought Loki's wide-eyed expression and perhaps even a small hint of fear was amusing. After several silent seconds, he finally said, "Err, yeah, I'm called a wizard where I come from; girls are called witches. We all do magic though."

"Magic? That's really what you call that stuff you do?" Tony asked.

"Yeah," Harry said a little shyly, not sure if he liked everyone looking at him like this. He was used to being looked at "at home", but this felt different. He wasn't sure if it was hero-worship or more like a lab rat.

Natasha suddenly put her hand to her ear. "Our ride is almost here. We're supposed to bring Loki back with us … and the Tesseract."

"I forgot about that and Dr Selvig. Be right back," Tony said and flew out a missing window.

"May I?" Harry said as he reached for Loki's scepter, or really a strange sword he thought. No one said anything so he picked it up. It wasn't like Gryffindor's sword, but he could feel the magic in it. He stepped back and twirled it like a sword for a few swings. "Nice, different from a real sword, but still nice. Who does it belong to?"

"My brother," Thor said with a frown at the disgraced person. "Perhaps you could hold it for now? It was taken when we had it last time. As a Vitki it should not be able to do anything to you."

"Sure," Harry said as Tony flew back in with a small glowing box in his hand and holding onto Dr Selvig.

"Go out that way to the platform," Tony directed. "Our ride is here."

When Thor yanked Loki to his feet, Harry shot ropes at the prisoner and tied him up completely from his shoulders down to his waist so he couldn't move his arms at all. "Good idea, thank you," Thor told the wizard as he grabbed the top handful of ropes and pulled Loki along.

Most surprising, Hulk suddenly shrank and in his place stood a mild-mannered looking man wearing only pants, which threatened to fall down if not held up.

Harry wanted to laugh but knew that wouldn't have been polite. Instead, he shrank the pants with a spell and then conjured a shirt and some sandals. "They'll last long enough for you to find some real clothes," Harry told him.

"Thanks, Harry. I'm Bruce Banner." The man shook hands with Harry before he picked up the clothes and walked after the others to their ride, dressing along the way.

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(A/N: The first draft is completely finished for this story, so I shouldn't have any trouble posting once a week, and twice if you're luckly. Also, I'm not a big comic fan, my knowledge of the Avengers comes from the movies and a few internet searches; so if I get things wrong there, please be gentle with me and go with it. We're having fun here.)


	2. Introductions

(A/N: Thank you for the kind reviews so far. To those who saw the goof on Clint's name at the beginning and pointed it out, thank you and I corrected it as soon as I could. I have no idea what I was thinking because I knew it was Clint _Barton_. For those who wondered why I called Harry a Vitki, the Old Norse term used seems to depend on where you research it. :) This is the one I picked. However, it was a simple plot device to introduce Harry; it won't be used again after Thor says good-bye … unless Harry were to visit Asgard.)

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**Chapter 2 - Introductions**

(starts very shortly after the end of chapter 1)

Harry had seen pictures of Muggle navy ships before, including an aircraft carrier ... but this?! "People think my magic is unusual, but a flying aircraft carrier?"

Steve looked at him and smiled. "Yeah, I was really surprised the first time too."

Natasha, who was sitting beside Harry, chuckled quietly. "Don't worry," she told the wizard, "that's most people's reaction the first time they see it."

"Thanks," he told her as quietly. When she looked over at Loki to make sure he wasn't causing trouble, he looked at her again and tried to figure her out. She was an interesting mixture of friendly, like just now, and seriousness, as she had been for most of the day. He supposed the seriousness was due to fighting for her life, but it was like she could change between the two like flicking a switch. He thought she was pretty, but he wondered if she was a natural redhead. She didn't have the freckled complexion like Ginny.

When she started to look back his way, he shifted his gaze a little to look at the two Asgardians. He had a little knowledge about Norse mythology from reading a book when he was bored - his cousin had left it lying around - but he didn't remember much. It was strange that traveling to this world brought that mythology to life, as well as made his former life a myth to these people.

The helicopter landed and they disembarked. Harry stayed close to Natasha and Tony, feeling the most comfortable with those two.

Their first stop was a place to put Loki until Thor was to take him back for justice in Asgard. Just for good measure, Harry cast, "_Stupify!_ There, he'll sleep for a while to make sure he doesn't try anything."

Thor looked like he would object at first, then he paused and nodded. "That is probably best."

Clint continued to lead the group and took them to the bridge.

Harry was impressed all over again. This was as cool as any movie he'd ever seen (which was few) and it was real in this world.

"I think we'll sit here for the debrief," said a man with a stern voice.

Turning, Harry saw a large table and on the other side was a black man who was bald and had an eye-patch. The patch didn't bother Harry, but the man's look did. It was like a cross between McGonagall's sternness and Snape's disdain for everything. While he didn't gulp, he did mentally prepare himself for a different kind of battle. He pulled up what little Occlumency shields he had and used them to calm himself. He would not let this man treat him like Dumbledore.

The last year had shown him that while Dumbledore had probably cared for him and wanted him to do well, the old man had used him like a rapier to get rid of Voldemort according to the evidence he'd found after the final battel. He would not be used again.

Harry took a seat, leaning the handle of Loki's scepter against the edge of the table, the point on the floor.

"I see Loki is secured again. What happed to him?" the Director asked.

"He is but asleep, or so I'm assured," Thor answered.

The man turned his gaze and held it on Harry, who willed himself to take it like he had from Snape. "And who are you?"

"I'm Harry Potter," he answered, purposefully going for simple answers when he could. "You are?"

"Nick Fury, the Director of SHIELD. As someone who wields a very interesting power, or so I'm told, why haven't I heard of you before?"

Harry considered what to tell them. So far, Fury was being a bit of a pain in the arse, but he wasn't as bad as Snape yet. "Because I just arrived this morning. I was fed up with where I was living and decided to leave through a portal to another dimension, or that's what I've heard it was. I thought it would either take me somewhere or kill me if I was unlucky. I wound up here. One could say I was in the wrong place at the wrong time this afternoon, but it all worked out."

When Fury didn't immediately answer, Natasha said, "I'd have to agree. I said it before but I'll say it again. Thank you for your help in protecting me and the team. I owe you."

She was completely serious and he could tell she really meant that. With a nod he said, "Anytime."

"I must thank you as well for turning off that device," Fury said, although it looked like it pained him to have to say that. "However, I'd like to know more about our benefactor."

He couldn't help the smile as he thought about an old movie he'd seen as a child when the Dursleys were away once. "Like name, rank, and serial number?"

Tony chortled while Natasha and Bruce smiled; the others looked a little surprised he'd said that - except for Fury, he looked like he was about to live up to his name.

"Mr - Potter -" Fury ground out.

"Oh relax, Fury," Tony told him in the joking manner he's used almost all day when talking to Harry. "He just helped save the world and he's eighteen…"

"Nineteen," Harry interjected.

"Nineteen," Tony echoed as if he'd known that all along, "and he's new here. Grilling him like this isn't the way to go about it all."

"_I_ - am the Director of SHIELD and - _I_ - am responsible for defending the world."

Harry wondered if the man was going to have a stroke. At least he didn't have a throbbing blood vessel like his uncle had.

"Mr Potter, I need to know more." Fury looked at him like Snape, demanding an answer with his expression.

That look sealed it for Harry, giving him the measure of the man. He was like his uncle, thinking he could control everything in his domain. That made him a bully and Harry knew how to deal with bullies now. A glance at Natasha, who looked mildly surprised at the director's answer, gave him more resolve.

Putting steel in his voice, Harry answered, "I can wield magic to protect myself and others, and I don't hurt other people when I can avoid it, but I will if I have to. That's all you really need to know about me for now."

Harry looked right back at Fury and didn't move his gaze. He had been able to look Voldemort in the eyes and Fury had nothing on him. His right hand also slowly moved and lightly rested on his left wrist in case he needed his wand to defend himself quickly.

Clint suddenly cleared his throat. "Well, I think that's some good info, but battles like that really make me hungry and it's been hours since I've eaten. I believe I'll go find some dinner. Harry, want to come with me? It seemed like I was always hungry when I was your age."

A quick glance showed Clint's hands were both on the table and he looked like he was pleading with Harry to come with him. Looking at Natasha, who was again seated next to him, he saw both her hands on the table and a compassionate look like she was sorry this was happening. Looking back at Fury, who had not lost any of his intensity, Harry slowly stood, picking up the scepter in his right hand. "Yeah, I'm hungry too."

"You need to leave that item here," Fury told him, nodding towards the scepter.

"Thor entrusted its care to me and I will keep it safe," Harry disagreed, watching Fury closely. "I understand you didn't do that when you had it before." He readied his left hand as training over the last year had shown him that he didn't have to use his wand for a few spells; plus he had an advantage now that he hadn't had a year ago.

As the tension continued to climb, Clint said, "The mess hall is this way." He stood slowly and started walking towards and then behind Harry. Harry could hear his footstep continuing. He wanted to turn around and make sure nothing happened behind his back, but he trusted Clint a lot more than Fury right now so he walked backwards several steps, keeping Fury in his vision until he thought he was near the door behind him. Turning, he hurriedly left the room.

"Thanks, Clint."

"No problem, Harry. So, what do you like to eat?"

— — —

As the door closed, Fury slammed his hands on the table and dropped into his chair. "What the hell do you all think you are doing? Here is a major power who just took out multiple aliens, including a couple of those worms who are just now floating to the surface of the ocean deader than yesterday's fish, mysteriously transported miles away and to the bottom of the ocean, and you all are just letting him do whatever he pleases without explaining himself? Do you know what he could do? What if it's possible for him to be the next Loki and try to destroy the world! Don't any you find the timing of his arrival the least bit suspicious?"

Stark looked at Banner. "I don't think you have a corner on the anger market."

Banner only shrugged, but it looked like he was having to work to maintain his innocent expression.

"This is serious, Stark!" Fury ignored all the others on the bridge, including Agent Hill who was looking at him with incredulity at his outburst.

"You want to know what's serious?" Stark said, his flippant manner completely gone as he leaned forward and put his metallic elbows on the table near his helmet that was resting there. "That kid stepped forward to help us when he didn't have to. He saved a lot of people today."

"Including me," Natasha interrupted.

"Her and a lot of others," Stark continued. "He took down the shield around that generator and helped close the portal when none of the rest of us could. He's not someone I'm going to worry about trying to take over the world. In fact, he could come live in one of my spare apartments if he wanted to and I wouldn't be concerned about it at all.

"He also did your job of preventing the city from getting nuked by helping to close the portal. If you're pissed off about him doing your job, fine, go yell in your office about how you don't like that, but don't yell at him. If it were up to me, he can have the title of Avenger if he wants it … not that I think he does at this moment. Oh, and don't make him angry because I'm willing to bet he can kick your ass with a single wave of his stick faster than you can draw your gun."

"I see," Fury said slowly and only a little more calmly. "So you _know_ he's not a threat. You can _guarantee_ that?"

"I know he's not a threat," Natasha said, "just as I know he's to be taken seriously."

Fury looked at Captain America. "Obviously, I can't guarantee it, but I also don't believe he's a threat. I don't understand his story about coming from another dimension to this one, but there's a lot of things about today that I don't understand. Honestly," Steve looked it too, "I think we have a lot more important things to worry about than Harry Potter."

Fury turned his attention to Thor. "Why did you give him that scepter?"

Thor blinked and sat up a little straighter. "Because he is Vitki," he replied as if it should have been obvious. "He is the only one here who can use it beside my brother, and he's the best person to keep it safe - probably even more so than myself. I trust him."

"I assume you're taking Loki home?" Fury said, dropping the previous topic.

"I will personally guarantee that he will be punished for what he's done here," Thor promised sincerely. "I will also see that the Tesseract is secured so it does not come to Midgard again."

The director looked around the group, but no one said anything else. Making up his mind, he said, "You all have leave to get some rest and recover. Keep your phone on you in case something comes up. Agent Romanova, in my office." He stood and turned without waiting for her.

Stark looked at Thor. "When are you leaving with Loki?"

"I will get some rest here and then return with him to Asgard tomorrow morning, where he will answer for his crimes to Odin at the soonest possible moment," Thor replied.

"Have someone call me an hour before you're ready to go. I'd like to see you off," Tony said as he stood. "I need to go reassure Pepper that I'm all right and check on the damage."

Natasha agreed with the rest to be there to send the two Asgardians home before she walked to see the Director. While she could understand her superior's concerns, she thought they were unfounded and she hoped he'd cooled down by now so they could discuss this rationally.

Without needing to be told, she closed the door to his office and took a seat. She knew she was safe in here but she also left her mission awareness on; this was not a time to relax.

"Agent Romanova," he said quietly and the most calm he'd been for the last hour. "Tell me about today and Harry Potter. What happened and what did you see him do?"

She spent the next ten minutes telling him about the afternoon as factually as she could. When that story was done, she then said, "Harry Potter behaved admirably and intelligently. I would agree with Stark that he is prime material for the Avenger program. He would be an excellent asset."

"Speculate about him," he asked her.

"There is little to speculate about. He is honorable and has a code of ethics, that was obvious to me. It is not one you need to worry about. It was also obvious he's seen fighting before. He kept his head and understood tactics. He also seems to instinctively know when he needs to do something immediately because it's important, as well as work with the team for a larger goal. He knows little of hand-to-hand combat without using magic, but he knows how to wield a sword."

Fury looked at her for a moment. "He also likes and trusts you the most in the group."

"Sir?" That surprised her as it was not something she had noticed and there was little around her that she didn't see. Sure, they had worked a lot together after Harry had saved her, something she really did feel she owed him for, but she hadn't seen anything beyond that. They had sat together several times today, but the group was small enough that felt like coincidence to her.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I said I appreciated what he did today and I meant it. I probably did go a little overboard because I've still not fully come to grips with the idea that SHIELD's board thought it was a good idea to nuke New York City. But even in my less than best state, even I could see that he always looked to you first when gauging what was going on and deciding what to do. He also always walked next to you after he got off the helicopter - at least that I saw on the monitors, and he purposefully sat next to you out there, skipping two closer seats to him. There is something about you that he finds special.

"What I don't know is if that's just being a teenage boy around a pretty girl who's really not too much older than he is, or is it because he feels protective of you, or maybe he really likes you, or perhaps it's all or none of the above. So while I have a lot of questions about him and what, if anything, I need to do about him, I do know one thing.

"You, Agent Romanova, are in charge of him and your mission is to find out what you can about him and report that back to me. I don't believe you can get him to do a psyche eval, but if you can get that info out of him in your own way, that would be very helpful. I especially need to know his capabilities and powers."

Fury leaned forward again. "You're a spy, a damned good one too. Spy on Harry Potter. He needs a place to live; don't tell him about Stark's offer. Take him home with you to that house you never use and we maintain anyway. Tell him you have two weeks of vacation to rest after this. Show him around like you're both tourists; do stuff together; get to know him."

He leaned forward a little more. "I know what it was like before you came to us and what they would ask you to do in this situation. I will do anything to save the world, but even I realize this is not that desperate yet, so there are lines I won't ask you to cross with this assignment like _they_ would have. However, for this mission, I will remind you that he doesn't work for SHIELD, so all policies that forbid relationships between team members don't apply. Do what you need to do and with what you feel _comfortable_ with. Any questions?"

"No sir," she instantly said, somewhat surprised with that last part.

"This mission is on a need-to-know basis, and I'm presently the only person who needs to know; to everyone else, you're on vacation and playing tour guide to a guest and friend. Go find Potter and take a vacation. If you see Barton, send him to me. I have a mission for him." Fury fell back in his chair to think.

Natasha stood and left, thinking the whole thing through, what she needed to do and say. She honestly thought Harry was a good guy and was trustworthy. She also felt she owed him and she paid her debts. There was no doubt she'd show him around and give him some advice. If he wanted to stay, she'd help him fit in. If he wanted to go, she'd give him some more advice and look the other way; that would be her repayment. If Fury didn't like that, that was his problem. She had little doubt Harry Potter could take care of himself if required.

Inside the main mess hall, she found the two "escapes" still sitting together at a corner table, both with their backs to a wall, which amused her. Clint was finishing a plate of food while Harry looked like he'd had sandwiches, probably multiple if he was still finishing one given how long they'd been here. "Gentlemen," she greeted them.

"Did Fury have a stroke after we left?" Clint asked with amusement and Harry looked very interested in that.

"No, but it wasn't for lack of trying," she joked as she sat, next to Harry and across from Clint at the table for four. "He said he has a mission for you. The rest of us wanted to see Thor off tomorrow morning, so you might want to try to work that in." She looked at Harry. "Want to come?"

"Sure," he said before he finished the last of his sandwich and washed it down.

"I've also been given two weeks off." She watched him carefully, wondering if Fury was really right about him and her. "You haven't said you have a place to stay, so want to come stay with me? I can show you around."

He blinked and looked shocked. "S-Stay with you?"

"Yes," she said, hiding her amusement at his nervousness. "I have a house with an extra bedroom or two, unless you'd like to stay here on the helicarrier. I'm sure Fury wouldn't mind." That was a bit unfair of her, perhaps, but it seemed to push him in the desired direction.

"No," he said quickly. "I don't think that'd be a good idea. I can rent someplace to stay; I wouldn't want to be an inconvenience."

"Hardly, there's plenty of room and I'd love to have you around to have someone to talk to," she told him, turning on the charm just a little. "It'd be fun to be normal for a while."

Surprisingly to her, he nodded. "Normalcy is so hard to come by." He studied her for a moment and she felt like she was being judged. "All right, just for a little bit until I can figure out what I want to do."

"That's fine," she agreed, considering herself lucky that she'd happened to mention something that he could relate to. She had to be good at reading people in her line of work, but sometimes luck paved the way. "You can ask whatever you want and I'll do my best to give you advice. Consider it my repayment for what you did for me."

"You really don't need to," he insisted.

"Maybe not, but I feel like I should and I want to," she insisted and he nodded. There was something between them, she decided. They were comrades in arms for sure, but she wasn't sure if there was more or not. Nevertheless, she'd keep Fury's observation in mind.

"See you tomorrow, Clint?" she asked as she stood, with Harry rising too.

"Yeah, I'll be there if at all possible. Leave your plate, Harry; I'll take care of it. Have a good time you two," Clint smiled, and then grinned even more when Harry blushed slightly and hurried away after his teasing.

"Err, Natasha, is it possible we could try to find someone?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"Who?" she asked as they walked towards the bridge to arrange a ride back to New York City.

"Part of the reason I came through the portal was to see if I could find my godfather. He was knocked into it about three years ago. I was," Harry paused and took a deep breath, "I guess I was hoping he'd have come here too."

She looked at him for a moment and realized one more thing about Harry: he'd had a lonely life so far; he had that searching look. "I've never heard of anyone else like you with your powers, but I can search for him with SHIELD's computer. If he used his real name here, I can get the list of people with that name and their addresses. If they're near, we can go there while on vacation to see if one of them is him."

"Thanks," he said, looking relieved. He kept that look all the way to the bridge.

On the bridge, Natasha went over to Agent Hill and found out there was a helicopter about to leave to help with cleanup of anything alien. She arranged transport for Harry and her before pulling him over to a computer console. "What was your godfather's name?"

"Sirius Black."

"Seriously?"

Harry laughed quietly. "That would have been a joke he would have made. Spell it like the star."

She started a query for a person and typed the man's name in. "Spelled like this?" she asked, pointing to the screen.

"Yes."

"Age?" she asked.

"Late thirties, I'd think," he said a little hesitantly and she entered "35-40".

A few seconds later, the computer reported no matches. "There are none in the US." At his disappointed look, she said, "Let me expand to other countries." It took another half minute, but that came back empty too. "I'm sorry, Harry. Either the portal didn't bring him here or maybe he changed his name. We also don't have the names of all seven billion people in here either, but we do know about most people in the more modern countries."

Harry nodded sadly. "Thanks for trying anyway."

"If you think of any other way to find him, I'll help you try," she told him caringly. "Come on, we need to get moving as they're probably waiting for us." As she led him out, she glanced over towards the director's office and noticed he was watching. She gave him a nod and left.

— — —

The helicopter they rode landed on top of one of the buildings near where the fight had been.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked her.

"I have an apartment near here. We'll spend the night there. Then after Thor leaves, we'll go to my house on Long Island. It's quieter there and we can relax for a day or two while we decide what to do for a couple of weeks. How does that sound?"

"That seems reasonable," he answered and looked around. There was one other guy near, so he quietly asked, "Where is it? I can take us there quickly. I don't think we really want to walk around down there dressed like we are now, and I probably need to change how we look anyway."

She was obviously considering that. "You're correct to be cautious," she finally answered. "I'm sure someone took our pictures and they're probably on the news by now. How would you change how we look?"

Harry pulled out his wand and waved it over her. Her pants turned into normal looking blue jeans and her top changed into a red T-shirt that matched her hair. Another wave and her utility belt and guns disappeared. She patted her sides a little franticly for a moment. "How did you do that? I feel them but I don't see them."

"A concealment charm for them and a transfiguration for your clothes. Don't worry, I can change them back when we get to your place." Harry changed his clothes too, blue jeans and a dark green shirt for him. "Where do you live? Should I take you there or would it be best to walk?"

She chuckled. "I think flying on a broom would bring too much attention to us, but I live in that building over there at the edge of central park."

"All right, hold on." Since the helicopter pilot was looking the other way, he grabbed her hand and Apparated her to the roof of her building.

"Dermo!" She crouched a little and looked around very quickly.

Or that's what Harry thought she said, but he wasn't sure and thought that maybe it was another language. "Are you all right? I know that's a little uncomfortable, but it shouldn't have hurt you."

Slowly, she stood and calmed her breathing. "Don't ever do that again without telling me first," she told him sternly. "How did you do that?"

"Magic," he said with a bit of cheek. He was a little surprised at her reaction. She seemed to have accepted practically everything else thrown at her before, even changing her clothes. Well, her guns disappearing alarmed her a little, he reminded himself.

She calmed the rest of the way as she really looked around. "At least you brought us to the correct place. Follow me."

They found a door and went down two floors via stairs, passing another young couple going up. Pulling out a key by feel from her invisible utility belt, she unlocked the door and let them in, locking it behind them.

Harry looked around and thought it was fairly nice, but it didn't have much of a personal touch. "Do you stay here often?" He saw a single bedroom. It was a small place but had a nice view. He knew he'd be sleeping on the couch tonight, but that would be better than his old bed at the Dursleys, so he could live with that.

"A few days a month. I've thought about getting rid of it, but it does come in handy because no one expects to find me here. I have several small places all over the world," she told him matter-of-factly.

"I had a big house, but I left it to my friends from school when I came here. If they're smart, they'll sell it and use the money to buy a house somewhere else." Or Harry thought that's what they should do and had mentioned it in the letter he sent them along with the deed to old Number 12 just before he left.

"Let me change and we can go get something to eat. Or if you're not hungry you can join me for dessert," she told him. "Oh, can you change this back to normal?" She pointed to her clothes. A single wave of the wand reverted it all and she now looked like she had back at the helicarrier.

Harry pulled out his trunk and enlarged it. Searching, he found some clean clothes and changed quickly.

She came out a few minutes later in real jeans and a blouse, along with a purse that was over her shoulder with a long strap. Harry wouldn't have been surprised to find out that there was a gun in it.

They had dinner in a small Russian restaurant, where she told about herself in vague terms: growing up in Russia, working for the government, and then Clint helping her to defect and come here to join SHIELD as it was really getting going.

Harry listened while he slowly ate a dessert she recommended, Prague Cake. "So, what you're telling me is that you were a spy?" he asked as quietly as she had been talking.

Natasha smiled mischievously at him. "Things are rarely that simple, but yes. I'm also very good at ballet. I studied at the famous school in St Petersburg."

"Then what do you do for SHIELD? Spy?"

"We call it gathering information," she answered, her smile turning into a smirk.

"Who do you gather information on?" he asked, wondering about her.

Natasha finished her dinner and looked at him carefully. "I'm sure you're asking because you want to know if you can trust me."

"Mostly," he acknowledged, "but I also want to know if I can trust SHIELD and Fury."

She smiled at him. "I trust both of them enough to work for them and I'm generally suspicious of everything. To answer your question, I'm given missions to get info on groups that are causing global disruption. Most of the times, it's criminal groups selling weapons they shouldn't be and terrorist groups trying to expand, but it can also be against countries that look like they're about to invade someone else and other situations of that magnitude. Sometimes I'm tasked with bringing a criminal in so he can stand trial, someone normal police can't handle. We operate within the law or where there is no law at all."

"Like aliens invading?" he asked with a grin.

Natasha laughed quietly. "Yes, they didn't get the memo not to invade. Seriously, that was an all-hands event and the first one of its kind. I'd like to hope there are no more of those, but who can really say."

"I can understand," he agreed.

The redhead paid their bill and they walked back for her apartment. She told Harry about the city and pointed a few things out to him. The city was slowly returning to normal, except for the area the fight had been in.

They talked for a little more back at her apartment before she handed him a pillow and a blanket for the couch, turning in early because of the exertions of the fight.

— — —

Harry looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was only a little after midnight. He might have dozed off a little in last few hours, but thought not and he was sure he could not get to sleep any time soon.

Natasha's bedroom door was closed, so he rose and pulled on his pants over his boxers and put his shoes on; his T-shirt would be enough on top. Retrieving and donning his Invisibility Cloak, he thought very carefully and Apparated as quietly as he could, which he had been told was quieter than most - almost but not quite silent.

When he arrived at the underground train station tunnel, he looked and found the tile with his initials in it, showing him that he was in the right place. Looking more carefully now, and casting a spell to detect magical usage or even existence of anything magical. His transformed tile was the only thing that showed as magical and there were no marks that he could see that showed Sirius had ever been here.

He fell back again the wall, leaning there to hold himself up. He'd known and mostly accepted that Sirius was gone, but he'd hoped his godfather had only appeared dead because he went to another dimension - namely here; however, that didn't seem to be the case. It seemed more final now for some reason when there was no evidence of his existence.

Taking a deep breath to clear some of the numbness of his feelings away, he retraced his path from earlier today to the streets again, somewhat surprised to see the train station open at this time of night, and surprised to see so many people on the street. Sure, it wasn't as nearly busy as during the day, but he hadn't expected to see more than one or two people around instead of the dozen out and about.

With his Cloak still on, he wandered down the street. The area where the fight had been was marked off and there were a few policemen around, but they were few and usually talking with each other and not really watching.

The destruction had been so pointless, or at least from what he understood. Loki, like Voldemort, had tried to take over the world in his own fashion, not really caring what happened to everyone else.

Wanting to do something good, maybe to correct the wrong or maybe to honor Sirius, he wasn't sure, he ducked under the yellow ribbon to keep people away and entered the fight zone. There was a crew working several blocks away under bright lights, so Harry thought he could safely work here.

Letting only the tip of his wand out of his cloak, and thankful that this spell was colorless, Harry began to cast Repairing spell after Repairing spell. He fixed broken windows, chips from walls, holes blasted out of the street. In many cases he reduced damage to cars. He even greatly reduced the damage to the bus he'd moved. Some things couldn't be completely repaired, but he did as much as he could for a couple of blocks.

He couldn't really go any further because of a crew that was starting to clean up the mess, removing materials needed to restore broken things, but Harry did as much as he could. In the end, he felt better for restoring some order and he felt truly exhausted.

Thinking very carefully, he Apparated back to Natasha's apartment and, with the low light through the gauzy curtains, found a gun practically in his face. He froze and stared at it for a moment.

"Reveal yourself or die," he heard whispered from a form on the couch.

Slowly, Harry dropped the hood of his cloak. "It's me, Harry," he told her before he dropped the rest of the cloak to the floor

The gun lowered and was set on the side table. "Where have you been? I heard a noise and found you gone. I didn't know where to look either."

He sat down on the couch and twisted so he could lay on it, his feet mostly on the floor. "I'm tired now; I couldn't sleep before," he said thickly.

She moved, stepping over his feet and kneeling down beside the couch where his head was. Gently, she stroked his hair. "Where did you go?"

"I had to know. There was no sign that Sirius has ever been here. I'd seen his ghost or shade in my world, so I should have known he was dead, but I'd hoped he'd be here." It hit Harry again as he said that out loud and he couldn't contain the feelings this time. "He's really gone and I'm the last," he sobbed, turning his face into the pillow to hide.

The last thing he remembered was becoming more comfortable before he fell into a deep sleep.

—

Natasha removed his shoes and put his feet on the couch before pulling the blanket over him. Most of that explanation wasn't too hard to figure out, given what Harry had already shared about his godfather. What Harry was the last of was harder. It probably didn't really matter, but it reinforced her thought that Harry was lonely.

Picking up the silvery material he'd been wearing when he arrived, she draped it around her shoulders like Harry had. Looking down, she could still see the cloth; it was beautiful in its own way, but she'd hoped it would have made her invisible like Harry had been. Folding it, she carefully laid it on top of his trunk.

Silently, she retrieved her gun and walked back into her bedroom to go back to bed, leaving her door open. She was always a light sleeper, a necessity in her line of work. If he made a sound before her mobile phone vibrated with a message for the meeting, she'd know.

* * *

(A/N: Am I the only one who can't read a story with Nick Fury in it without hearing SLJ's voice? :)


	3. Getting to Know You

(A/N: Someone asked about other Marvel characters, especially those with a magic influence. They won't be appearing because this is a limited universe in my mind. Also, the cloak didn't work for Natasha because she's not magical, so it won't activate; at best she could share it with Harry.)

* * *

**Chapter 3 - Getting to Know You**

Harry woke slowly, not quite sure what brought him out of slumber. As he blinked, he saw the slight movement of a foot as it rocked to a silent beat. Looking up, he saw Natasha sitting in a chair, legs crossed, and looking over a mug at him.

"Good morning," she said quietly, her eyes looking him over, searching for something. "Do you feel better?"

He looked down to make sure he was wearing something and saw that he had pants on, so he sat up. "I'm uh, a little tired, but yeah … thanks."

"Your godfather meant a lot to you, didn't he?" She didn't pause for long. "It's all right, it proves you're still human if you can care."

The smile she gave him was small and somehow serious; it was contradictory but real. He knew she understood, that she'd lost someone very important to her in the past. "I thought I was past missing him; I guess not."

"The hurt will fade with time, but you really don't want it to go away, not deep down," she assured him.

He nodded; he didn't want to ever forget Sirius.

"We have to be there in a little over an hour. You can use the bathroom to get ready. We'll grab breakfast on the way." She took a sip of her coffee, still watching, evaluating him.

Standing, he went over to his trunk and saw his cloak lying on top, neatly folded. He picked it up and opened the compartment for his special things and put it away. Then he closed it and opened the compartment for clothes and pulled some out.

"So, it has different spaces in it?" she asked confused.

He closed it and looked at her. "Something like that. I was told each was a dimensional pocket, whatever that means. I don't understand the theory, but I can make use of it," he said with a smirk and went to the bathroom.

When he came back out, she was watching the telly, which was showing a broadcast from the battle zone yesterday.

"Harry," she asked and looked up at him, searching again. "Did you do anything else last night except look for your godfather?"

He looked at the telly and saw they were showing the area he'd walked through last night and repaired as much as he could for the bottom three floors on several blocks. They even had pictures from immediately after the fight and right now. They were obviously questioning how that "change for the good" happened.

"I felt a little restless and not completely there. I thought that if I could do something normal it would help," he finally answered, still watching the telly because he didn't want to look at her. He held onto his thoughts about Sirius.

"Normal? So you repaired the damage?" She sounded very puzzled.

"It was spell work, that's normal to me." He pulled up the courage to look at her and saw that she wasn't angry or anything else bad. She was looking at him as if trying to figure him out.

"I also felt bad about causing some of it, so I fixed what I could. There are limits," he pointed out.

Natasha slowly smiled at him. "That was very nice of you, Harry.

"Get your things together and we can leave. We'll get breakfast nearby. I'll be back in a minute with my bag." She turned off the telly and went to her room, allowing him to pack his trunk.

— — —

A man pulled out his mobile phone and saw a new message: "Yes". He nodded to himself as it solved one mystery. Of course, that answered question created several new ones.

— — —

His trunk was in his pocket and she had only her large purse when they reached the street. She donned her sunglasses and looked at him. "Do you have any?"

"No. Should I?" Harry asked with uncertainty.

Natasha didn't say a word and led him into a small shop a few doors down. She pointed at the display of sunglasses. "Pick some. It's a simple disguise and it keeps the wind out of your eyes. You'll want that soon."

Shrugging, Harry spent a few minutes and picked some out, with a little prompting from Natasha to make them dark. He surprised her by pulling out some money and paying for them.

"Where did you get that?" she asked casually as she led him a few more doors down and into a small deli that sold pastries and other foods they could take with them.

"One of my thoughts was that the doorway I went through might only send me to another part of the world, so I converted some of my money into the major currencies. The rest of my money is in gold," he told her quietly before they ordered.

Walking out of the place, she resumed the conversation. "How do you carry gold around? It should be too heavy."

"I was told it's part of the nature of a dimensional pocket in my trunk. It has a consistent weight and very little at that." He looked at her and had to hold in his laugh at her astonished look as he said, "I probably have more weight in it than several of these cars."

She stopped at the entrance car park building. "Do you know how to make more of those? That would be very useful."

He grinned at her. "Not off the top of my head, but it might be in a book in my library. I'll have to show you sometime."

Natasha shook her head in disbelief of multiple rooms in a trunk and led him inside, where she had to show identification and they had to wait a few minutes for the car to be retrieved. They used the time to finish their minimal breakfast.

"At least you have good taste," he told her as she was driving them out in an Aston Martin convertible.

"You're just saying that because it matches your accent," she teased him.

Harry just smiled, enjoying the banter, not to mention the envious looks they were getting from those they passed. It was all that much better because he knew Dudley would have killed for something like this, and here he was just because he'd simply gotten lucky to meet the right people. He knew the Avengers would say he'd earned it, but he didn't feel like he'd done all that much.

Far too soon, she pulled over into a parking spot. He looked at her and quipped, "We should have walked the what … six blocks?"

"This allows us to leave directly from here," she pointed out and led him over to an area away from the main street. They were the last ones there. Except for Thor and Loki, all were dressed completely normally, not a special suit or outfit to be found among the other six. Even Natasha wore something that looked normal, although it was leather.

"We appreciate your help," Natasha told him and held out a hand, which Thor shook.

"How could I not when he comes from our world," Thor replied, giving Loki an unhappy look. Loki was wearing something covering the lower half of his face and his hands were in manacles.

The demi-god looked at Harry and held out his hand, which Harry shook. "It is good we have met, Vitki Harry Potter. The All-Father will be pleased to hear of your survival and I'm sure he'll wish to converse with you one day."

Harry couldn't help his grin as he said, "I'll stop by Asgard if I ever find myself in the neighborhood." That caused Thor to laugh heartily and the others joined him. "Uh, I guess I need to give you the scepter to take back." He pulled his shrunken trunk out of his pocket.

"Nay, keep it," Thor admonished him. "I can think of no one better to guard it than yourself. Can anyone else open that?" Thor pointed to the small trunk in Harry's hand.

"No, only me," Harry assured him. "If anyone else tried, well, it wouldn't be good for them."

"Aye, never touch a wizard's staff," Thor said in jest, causing Harry to blush and look down while the other's laughed at his expense. "I will arrange for you to come one day and we will have a feast." He looked briefly at Natasha and smiled before turning back to Harry. "If you do not bring your own fair maiden, I'm sure there are several in Asgard who would delight in accompanying you. Take care, Vitki Harry Potter."

"Good luck and take care, Thor," Harry returned, doing his best to reign in his embarrassment and yet enjoying the comradery.

Thor held out a device powered by the Tesseract to Loki, who obviously didn't want to but took ahold of the handle anyway. Thor activated the device and the two left in a streak of light going up.

Steve shook hands all around and said, "Until next time." He walked towards a motorcycle.

Bruce and Tony started shaking hands with those remaining too. "I see you didn't need me to find you a place to stay," Tony teased him and nodded towards Natasha.

Natasha gave him a calculated look. "Unlike you, I'm on vacation for the next two weeks so I can show him around. I'm also nearer his age," she pointed out.

"Ooh, ouch," Bruce murmured just loud enough everyone could hear him.

"Hey, be nice or there's no toys for you to play with in the lab," Tony said, strangely sounding a little like a father. "Call me, Harry. I'd really like to know how you do what you do, and maybe I can help you with a few things, like help you find a real girl, one without guns for certain."

"Real girls can handle guns and a whole lot more," Natasha said confidently and taking a half-step forward, daring him to reply.

It was friendly, and yet, Harry felt he had to do something, so he stepped between them. "Hey, stop it before I have to kick both of your arses."

The two looked at him and both burst out laughing. Perhaps that wasn't quite the reaction he was going for, but at least he'd accomplished his goal of removing the tension. Clint and Bruce were grinning madly and laughing also, understanding what he'd done.

Tony looked at Harry. "I mean it, call me soon. Later everyone." As he turned, Bruce waved and walked away with the billionaire towards his sports car.

They looked at the last member.

"I've got a mission in Greece to check on some weapons that aren't supposed to be where they are," Clint told them. "Fury said that if I needed to take a week to make sure the Mediterranean beaches were safe on the way back that I should do that."

"I've got two weeks off," Natasha told him. "I get to play tour guide and show Harry around, maybe give him some advice if he wants it." She looked at Harry steadily. "Maybe even convince him that Fury isn't really as much of a prick as he acted like yesterday, just that he was having a bad day."

Clint laughed. "Harry, Fury can be a real tough S-O-B sometimes, but she's right, he was having a really bad day yesterday. If you can, give him a second chance. Take a look at the people who are around him. I don't mean just this group, but there are some fine people in SHIELD … and there's one less today because he did his duty."

"Phil," she said quietly and Clint nodded.

"Take care, Harry," Clint said as he slapped Harry on the shoulder. "And don't believe half of what she tells you about me." With an easy smile, he turned and walked towards a car.

"Come on," she told him and they walked back to her car. A minute later she pulled out of the parking spot with a small squeal and looked at him. "Now I'll show you why I bought this." As she weaved through traffic, Harry thought that she'd make a good Seeker, if she could ride a broom.

— — —

They'd stopped at the first town outside of New York City and picked up groceries. It hadn't taken but a few questions to determine, based on her hesitations and non-answers, that he was the better cook, so he took over that shopping. He also insisted because she was providing the house and he wanted to contribute his fair share.

Eventually, they entered an area that had bigger houses. They weren't mansions, other than a few exceptions, but they were bigger than average and nicely kept up.

Natasha looked at him. "So you know, the story here is that a rich couple bought this house. They were really a couple of SHIELD agents, of course. They own the house and they have two grown daughters that use the house from time to time."

"You're one, I assume?"

"Yes, Agent Maria Hill whom you saw on the bridge of the helicarrier is the other. I think each of us only come here about once or twice a year," she said. "SHIELD maintains the house and has installed an above average security system, so if there are problems, someone will respond quickly."

Harry nodded as he took that in. He also assumed that by "an above average security system" she meant something beyond what the average person would have, based on what he'd seen of SHIELD so far.

Pulling into the driveway, he saw a good-sized house. It looked a lot like the others in many regards.

As they walked inside, she entered a code on a keypad on the wall. "This is the security system." She showed him how to turn it on and off, as well as the "panic button".

Each room was spacious and nicely decorated. It had four bedrooms; Natasha and Maria each had their own and Harry picked one of the guest rooms and placed his trunk in it. A few minutes later, all the groceries were being brought in and put away.

Since it was about lunch time, Harry made some sandwiches.

Natasha looked at him after they'd cleaned up. "What would you like to do, Harry? This is a reasonably safe and comfortable place, which is why I brought you here. However, there's not a lot to do other than rest and talk, unless you bring a small project with you and I didn't."

Harry considered what she said as well as thought about what he really wanted to do, something he'd come to no final conclusions about while they drove here. "In many ways, talking is good. I need to know what it's like in this world." He pointed to the TV in the other room. "Watching the telly and some news would be good, maybe just go out and walk around too."

He smirked at her. "Now that I know where your apartment in the city is, there's no reason we can't go to the city and do things. I can Apparate us there in secrecy and we can come back here at night."

"Apparating, that's what you call it when you travel somewhere? Like when you took us to the roof of my apartment building?" she asked.

"Yes. Fortunately, I'm fairly good at it."

"That has some very interesting possibilities. What kind of range do you have?" she wondered.

He shrugged. "Not really sure. I know I've gone almost 300 miles, or 450 kilometers before." He tilted his head a little. "It seems like you use miles here."

"Yes," she replied, "the old imperial units here, although some of us can deal with both as most of the rest of the world uses the Metric system."

He nodded. "Where I came from, we were switching to metric and mostly had, but there were still a few places the old units were preferred, like in a pub. A pint of beer is still a standard," he said with a grin.

She chuckled. "Some things have changed here, but it's a slow process. Maybe we should talk about what your world was like and compare it to this one; that might be helpful to you. Why don't you change into something comfortable, like a swimsuit, and we can sit by the pool and talk. I'll even make us some cold drinks."

"All right," he agreed and went to change.

When he came out, she was at the bar making the drinks. He couldn't help but notice her black bikini. It wasn't super small or anything, but it really showed just how good a figure she had. Forcing himself to not give in to embarrassment, he asked teasingly, "Are you trying to kill me?"

"No," she answered with the barest of smiles. "If I was, you'd already be dead. Here." She held out a large glass to him.

Hoping she really was teasing him, he took the glass and a sip. "Fruity with just a hint of something more. Nice. I'll have to introduce you to Firewhiskey sometime. I've only got six cases though."

"Six cases is quite a bit," she pointed out as she led him to the back porch.

"That has to last me for as many years as I think I'll want it. I can't make any here as I don't think the ingredients exist on this world and I don't know how either," he said with a smile.

Harry saw a small pool and a hot tub. Down an incline and in the distance, maybe 75 meters, was the ocean. The pool area was mostly shaded and they took seats in loungers with a table between them. He pulled his seat around so he see her a little better without constantly turning his neck.

"This is nice," he said, "the breeze makes it better."

"It'll get a little too warm some days in a month or so, but most of the time it's pleasant in the summer. So, tell me about your world?"

Harry took another sip of his drink as he thought about where to start. It was somewhat hard because it was such a broad topic, then again, looking at the lightly tanned beautiful woman in front of him made his brain freeze up in another way. "As you said, maybe we should compare history to see if there is a difference?"

"Sure," she easily agreed and listened to him describe his world's history highlights. As he wound down, she noticed their glasses were empty and took them for refills.

He watched her walk away and had to force himself not to ogle her. There was no doubt in his mind that she was really hot looking, which he had to admit made for a nice holiday companion.

Returning, she gave him his new drink and said, "I'm sure there's some details that are different, but at least from what you told me of the major events, I really don't notice any differences."

Harry nodded. "I see. Then if true, the real differences are that my world never had anyone like

the Avengers or SHIELD, and certainly not Thor or the Hulk; while this world never had my Wizarding society."

"Or if we did," she continued his theory, "then they died long enough ago that they didn't really make any lasting impact. We do have the myth of Merlin, but there's no evidence of him and many other things you think of as real."

They continued to talk for the rest of the afternoon, slowly sipping on their drinks, until Harry made dinner.

Natasha looked at him as she finished her meal. "I think I'm jealous," she told him as she put her napkin down. "I can cook well enough that no one will say they didn't like my meal, but that was far better than I could have done."

"I think the secret is in the seasonings," he told her as he waved his wand and the dishes started washing themselves.

She just blinked at that. "When you said there was a spell for just about everything, you weren't kidding, were you?"

Harry looked at her and grinned. "When I was in first year Charms class and learning how to levitate things, our professor cautioned us to be careful because someone once did the spell wrong and summoned a buffalo which fell on him."

"Seriously?!"

"A friend of mine researched that and she never found a spell to summon buffalos," he answered, "but technically, mistakes like that are possible. My personal opinion is that the professor was using a funny story to caution us. He was always the most fun teacher there."

"Go get a T-shirt on and let's walk down the beach," she told him as she headed to her room.

He did that and a few minutes later she returned with a short T-shirt over her bikini top and a short wrap over her bikini bottom.

As they walked to the beach on the path from the house, she asked, "Harry, you talk about having friends and school fondly. Why did you really leave?"

He stared out at the water, watching a wave break against the nearby shore for a moment. "I had friends, and yet I didn't. There were a lot of people who said they were my friend, but I believe it was only because I was famous; we didn't really know each other that well."

"You've mentioned some 'good friends'," she reminded him.

"We grew apart because of the war. You'd think fighting a war together would have brought us closer, but it didn't. My two best friends also ended up marrying each other. In my opinion, that was a mistake. I thought we were good enough friends I could tell them that, but my telling them only widened the gap between us." He shook his head at the travesty. "We were still friends after that, mostly, but that wasn't enough to keep me there."

He looked at her for a moment. "Part of the reason I wonder about SHIELD is because the last big reason I left was the government. They were very corrupt. We elected a new Minister whom I knew was a good guy, but it wasn't enough."

"The rest of the government was so bad he couldn't really change enough to matter?" she guessed. At his nod, she said, "It's in the history books here. Some think it's even happening now in some countries."

"Sad if true, but at least here I don't have to deal with my fame and I can start a new life," he told her.

Natasha snorted and chuckled. "Harry, you may not be famous for what you did as a baby here, but as the only wizard and someone who helped us defeat the alien invasion, you'll have fame for that."

"But it can be minimized, you do it," he pointed out, not mentioning his own efforts in that regard.

"Working in SHIELD helps, but I suppose you have a point," she conceded.

Screwing up his courage, he decided to ask a question that had been bothering him all afternoon. "Natasha, you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but how do you afford all of this? I know you said SHIELD pays for this house, but you said you have others and you were an orphan too. Or did you find family who has money, like I did?"

Surprisingly, she shot him a look of triumph. He knew her moniker was "The Black Widow" and he'd swear he'd just walked into her web based on that look.

"I have been considering whether to tell you about that part of my life and I think I shall, but it will have to wait until we return to the house," she told him. "I doubt anyone is listening, but this is a secret I'd prefer to keep that way."

Harry looked behind them and around. There was no one on the beach anywhere near that he could see. In fact, the only people he could see were very small they were so far away. The wind off the ocean seemed fairly loud too. Still, if she was that concerned. "I can help with that," he said, pulling out his wand and silently casting, "_Muffliato_."

"There," he told her as he put his wand back in his wand holster and the thing went invisible again, "now all they can hear is a small buzzing like insects."

She was looking at his arm. "So you always have your wand with you?"

"Yeah, pretty much. As you saw, when it's in the holster, it's invisible, so I can wear it even with short sleeves. You pay extra for that of course," he replied. "I could probably make one if I wanted to, but I have three others in my trunk just in case this one gets damaged.

"Your secret?" he prompted as she looked thoughtfully at his arm.

Natasha suddenly laughed. "I like this idea better all the time." She turned serious suddenly again. "I told you I was trained as a spy starting when I was very young. When I grew older, I was sent on missions as you'd expect. I soon noticed that there would sometimes be extra things left lying around at the end … things that wouldn't be missed or couldn't be reported as stolen." Her amused look returned. "Thieves can't report things that have been stolen from them."

"All right, I suppose I can understand that, since the stuff wasn't really theirs anyway. What kind of stuff are we talking about?" he asked.

"Mostly bags of money with the occasional pieces of jewelry and artwork. It was this last bit that matters. Don't get me wrong," she said seriously, "the money was very useful and I still use it to pay for my safe houses, but the jewelry and artwork made a special change in my life."

"I can understand the money, as having extra allows you to have options you normally wouldn't," he said.

"That's very true, but the other gave me a way to continue making money." She put her hands behind her back as they walked, giving Harry a profile that he had to force himself to look away from despite how much he enjoyed it.

"When Clint helped me to change sides, the job with SHIELD was good for me. It gave me stability and some spending money, but more importantly it gave me something to do with myself, a way to use the skills I'd taken years to learn. However, even SHIELD didn't use up all of my free time and eventually I became a little bored.

"Looking at what I had, I remembered the jewelry and artwork and decided to sell some of it. Fortunately, I'd picked someone who wasn't completely honest and he didn't turn me in when he mentioned that it was stolen. However, the price for not turning me in was that he wanted half of the reward money from the insurance companies."

She shook her head for a moment. "I had been smart enough to only show him a couple of pieces, so I didn't lose much, but it started me thinking about how things worked. I contacted the big insurance companies and found that they maintain lists of property that have been stolen, all with rewards for their return, and sometimes they even have suspects whom they think have it.

"My second job was born in that moment, and it's all, or very close to all perfectly legal."

Harry considered that. "So you steal stolen artwork from thieves and return it to the insurance companies for their reward?"

"I think of it as helping to return stolen works to their rightful owners," she adjusted his definition. "Looking through the rest of my collection, I found that about ninety percent of it was stolen and I returned those as well, collecting my finder's reward. The last few pieces are stored and I check the listings from time to time to see if they belong anywhere."

"You said 'close to legal'. What isn't legal?" he asked, watching her closely, but she didn't react guiltily at all - although he did wonder if that was real or part of her spy training.

"Technically, I'm committing the crime of breaking and entering when I retrieve the stolen pieces, which means I don't go somewhere unless I'm sure there's a stolen piece there to retrieve," she explained.

"Yeah, I bet Fury would blow a gasket to have to get you out of jail for that," he mused.

Natasha stopped walking and looked at him. "Harry, while I'm reasonably sure Fury does know I have this extra job that I do in my free time, going to jail wouldn't happen because the people I retrieve the stolen goods from don't bother with the police. I believe you mentioned you fought against people who thought they were above the law. What would they have done to you if you were caught breaking into their house?"

"Oh! I see your point," he said just as seriously. "I'd simply disappear, if they caught me." He looked at her and searched her face, but she just looked at him calmly and neutrally despite the seriousness of the conversation. "That's a very dangerous hobby."

She slowly smiled at him before turning their walk around and heading back towards the house. "It keeps my skills sharp and gives me enough spending money to maintain a comfortable lifestyle."

He looked at her and saw her red hair blowing back behind her now, which reminded him of another redhead that had been in his life. He wondered if he was doomed to find redheads fascinating, or maybe it was just these two that seemed more similar than he'd first thought and their hair color was merely coincidence. This did cause him to look at the spy in a slightly different way. "You like the excitement too, don't you?"

Turning her amused looked back on, she said, "That was very insightful, because it's true."

"My former girlfriend was sort of that way. She liked the thrill of playing a sport that could severely injure you, despite how good magic is at healing." He shook his head. "I liked the sport too, but not enough to play professionally like she did."

"You aren't that daring? Some of the stories you told me sounded like you are," she told him.

Harry snorted. "Most of those I had no choice in. Still … there is something to be said for having _some_ excitement in your life. I merely prefer a more controlled kind."

"The unknown is part of the thrill," she pointed out. "But the reason I'm telling you all of this is that I thought you might like to work with me. You're unique skills would make it a lot easier and safer. I'll even split the money with you down the middle. We could do quite well together since we could go after the harder to retrieve items."

"Even if stealing from a thief to return the item to the owner is acceptable, I'm not sure about breaking into people's houses," he told her.

"If it helps your conscious, the people I have to retrieve these items from are the sort that have already committed a lot of crimes and should be in prison. They're generally not because they've bribed government officials. This sort of thing can cause problems there and sometimes helps in cleaning up the corruption, at least a little."

"Because they blame each other?"

"Yes," she confirmed, "I've seen it happen. It's not often enough, but it's nice to see when it does. Sometimes I've found enough information to put them prison. Again, it doesn't happen as often as I'd like, but it has happened."

"So you're a vigilante cop?"

"In many ways, that's what SHIELD does too, although it has the backing of governments."

Harry stopped as they'd come back to the path leading to their house. "I'll consider it, but I'll need to see proof that we're going after stolen items."

"Easily done first thing in the morning," she told him as she put an arm around his shoulders and guided him towards the house. "I think this is a beginning of a great partnership."

They watched the news on the TV for the rest of the evening, with Natasha explaining things when he asked questions.

— — —

It was late and Harry was sure Natasha was asleep. A spell ensured that she stayed that way for a few hours. He used the time for two things, the first of which was research. He looked around her house to see what he could find. There was one reference to SHIELD on a piece of paper, but otherwise, nothing that showed any problems; although, that might have been mostly because there was little to find about anything.

He knew that didn't mean she was totally honest with him, but it was a good start. He looked down at the ring on his left hand. It was a simple one with no jewels, but it was a little different in that it looked like metal and wood twisting around it, which it was. What really made it special was that it was a focus device, just like a wand. Olivander had made it for him as a thank you for rescuing him. It wouldn't do powerful spells, but it could handle most everyday spells and light versions of combat spells. It was easily able to handle Legilimency. He didn't need to read her mind and he wouldn't do that as he'd hated it when Snape at done it to him, but he now planned to use the skill to determine if she was telling him the truth when they talked tomorrow.

He thought she was, else he would leave; he also wouldn't be doing his second task tonight. Taking some stones with special runes out of his trunk, stones that he'd paid Bill and Fleur Weasley to teach him how to make, he Disillusioned himself and went outside. There, he planted the stones underground and came back inside. One last stone was stuck to the wet bar because it was in the center of the house. A little more magic and the intruder detection ward came up. If anyone crossed that, he'd know.

Feeling a little safer, he went back to bed … letting the sleeping spell on Natasha wear off naturally.

* * *

(A/N: Yes, I am making stuff up whole-clothe about Natasha's extra job and all the details. Let's just go with it.

The idea of a focus ring is probably influenced by Bobmin's "The Power of the Press". I wasn't thinking about that when I wrote it, but I did remember the story when editing, so we'll call it a sub-conscious influence. :-)


	4. The Other Job

**Chapter 4 - The Other Job**

The next morning, Harry rose and found Natasha in a simplified version of her combat uniform, meaning no guns. She was in the exercise room, as she'd called it, and using the weight machines.

"Good morning, Harry, sleep well?"

"I did. You?"

"Better than normal. I feel very refreshed, but that's probably because I had a full day off. Want to join me?" she asked. "It'd be good for you."

He conceded it might be and joined her. She showed him how to use the equipment before returning to her exercise. An hour later they had breakfast.

After breakfast, she pulled out her mobile phone and set it on the table in front of them and then opened her laptop and brought up her email program. At each step she made sure Harry could see everything; then she started calling companies. Each answered with a company name, she asked for a person by name and saying she was "Retriever, codename Natalie."

At his questioning look, she hit the mute button and said, "It's the American form of my name, that's all they know, probably. I think one of them may know who I really am, but my identity is never discussed."

He nodded and sat there watching and listening, holding a passive Legilimency spell with his ring under the table at her.

With each manager, she asked for their current list of stolen items they had claims in for and had a reward for, along with the request to send that to her normal email address that was on file. Within a few minutes of each phone call, Harry saw a new email appear on her laptop. Each came from a different name, just as each phone call had been to a different number.

He also asked her a few questions to clarify what she'd said last night. Everything came back as truthful, or at least she believed that was the truth.

Looking at the documents emailed to her, he saw paintings, sculptures, jewelry, and jeweled things he didn't know were even made. The reward prices were a surprise and he could see how she could afford all the things she had. Then again, the estimated value of most of the items were a half of a million dollars and up, mostly double that and up - toys of the rich from all over the world.

Finally, he decided this would give them something to do that would be very different and he probably could keep them a lot safer. "Very well, I agree to try it once to see how it goes."

Natasha smiled broadly at him. "Wonderful. There is a man in Italy that is reported to have several of these items, but I've never been able to take that job. I know how to get in, but I've never been able to make a plan to get back out alive without killing a lot of people needlessly, which has stopped me from trying. However, your abilities will make that retrieval job possible."

"By Apparating out?"

"Exactly. He's also the head of a major crime family, so if we find any information on him, we can give it to the international police, Interpol. This criminal has bought the local police, so they won't help." She closed her laptop. "I'll grab a few things and arrange our flight to Naples. You probably want to bring your trunk."

"Wait, we're going to Naples, as in Italy? Just like that, no planning at all?"

"Yes, that Naples," she told him with a smile. "As for planning, we'll have hours on the plane. I'll show you what I know and we'll figure it out from there. We'll also do a reconnaissance check to make sure my information hasn't changed too much."

— — —

Surprising him with how fast she was starting to think about using magic, she had him Apparate them to her apartment in the city, where they caught a taxi to the airport, and then took a small private jet to Naples. She'd explained that while it was more expensive this way, it wasn't that much more and it gave them privacy to talk since the only other people on the plane were the two pilots and they stayed in the cockpit.

She showed him plans of the house they were going to and a report on the man who supposedly had the stolen items. The report also said he was the suspect because of his presence just before or at the time the items were stolen, probably by some "associates", and they had a statement from an electrical contractor who had seen part of picture from a stolen painting while working there. The electrician also had given a statement on some of the security devices in the house.

In Naples, Harry used his Invisibility Cloak to sneak past Customs before they picked up a rental car in which she drove them to a hotel she'd booked before they'd left. He had to work to hide his embarrassment when he found the two beds were in the same room, but at least she didn't expect them sleep together, although that was something he wouldn't mind after they got to know one another at least a little better.

In the rental car, she drove them around like they were tourists, including stopping on the side of the road to look out over the sea, which also happened to be in view of the suspect's house.

"Looks the same as when I looked six months ago," she told him. "I even see guards in the same positions."

Harry slowly looked around at all the houses they could see on the side of the hill, trying to look like a tourist, which wasn't very hard for him. The house in question was on the top of one of the hills. "We need to go somewhere we can hide what we're doing and then I can fly us over the house for a better look."

"I wouldn't think your cloak would hide us from the bottom."

He chuckled and leaned on the rail in front of him as he looked at the sea. "It wouldn't, but remember how I concealed your guns on the day we met? I can do that on us and my broom. It's not as good as my cloak, but good enough to let us fly a few hundred feet over the house and take a closer look."

"All right," she agreed. "Let take a drive down the road."

A while later, they had left the city far enough behind that there were places out of the sight of houses. She stopped in one of them and pulled a small bag out. Harry put a spell on the car so it would be left alone. They mounted his broom and he concealed everything. It didn't take long to return to the suspect's house.

Natasha pulled out some binoculars and checked the place out carefully. "Still two men walking around the second story balcony as guard. The skylight we need to get through is visible. In fact, I think I see a sculpture in the room."

Harry put the back of his hand on her thigh. "Put the binoculars in my hand. There might an easier way in," he told her. When he felt the device in his palm, he caused the broom to move very slowly, like a bird gliding in the wind. Looking down, he concentrated on the skylight, grinning when he saw that he could see enough detail. "Put these back in your bag and get ready," he told her as he pressed the glasses to her leg and she took them.

"You want to go now?" she asked surprised.

"Sure, you did say you wanted to do this during the day as there were more security devices turned on at night," he reminded her.

"Hold on then, I need to get ready. I've got a pair of gloves for you so there are no fingerprints."

"Can't," he disagreed. "It'll be very hard to cast spells that way. However, I don't need to touch anything. Remember, I'll levitate and shrink everything for you." He felt her moving around behind him and realized she was putting her little backpack over her shoulders.

"Secure the room, Harry and I'll figure what needs to go," she told him and wrapped her arms back around his middle. "I'm ready."

He pulled his wand out while gripping the broom with his left. "On three, ready, one, two, …" He Apparated both of them into the room under the skylight he had looked through.

They appeared in a very luxurious room, rich rugs on a nice wooden floor. Paintings were on all the walls of the large room, each with a soft spotlight. There were pedestals all around, each with a spotlight to highlight the work on it. In short, it looked like a museum.

He shot spells at the two cameras the electrician had told them about, then he saw two more cameras and disabled them as well. A sealing spell at the door caused it to squelch shut, leaving no cracks at all.

Natasha looked around amazed at what she saw. "There are a lot of stolen pieces in here. In fact, I've only seen a few I don't recognize from the lists we have."

"We better get busy then," he said, conjuring a bar over the door for good measure before canceling the concealment on her.

"We need to take it all."

He started to protest when he heard hissing above him. Automatically, he cast a Bubblehead charm on himself then one on Natasha. A freezing spell hit the mist that had been sprayed into the room, causing it to fall to the floor near them like frozen rain. Another few waves of his wand sent a heavy blanket of magic all over the room; that caused the lights to go out as well as several hisses and pops from other security devices they couldn't see.

"He's really paranoid," Harry said as he looked around the dim room, lit only by the skylight.

"His security is better than I was informed. We need to hurry." She started pulling out little bags, holding each up for Harry to levitate a piece, shrink it, then drop it into a little bag which she placed in her larger bag.

"Why are we taking everything?" he asked as they walked around the room, removing all the art as they went.

"Because with so much of it stolen, it's likely all of it is," she told him as they heard men pounding on the door to get in.

"But what if some of it's not," he asked as he took care of the bronze statue that had been in the center of the room.

"If we really can't find another owner for something, we can send it back," she promised as she put a jeweled egg in her bag.

"Right, I suppose that will work," he agreed as they started to hear sharp thumps on the solid wood door.

"Those are bullets, they must be desperate," she said as they took another painting, hurrying but not overly so as to damage anything. "I would have thought they would have waited to find a power saw so they didn't damage anything in here."

Harry cast another spell at the door and the next bullet sounded like it hit metal, followed by a cry of anger.

"Ricochet hit," she chuckled, taking another shrunken piece from him.

"We're almost done," Harry told her a few minutes later.

They took the last painting just as a large "wham" sound came through the heavy door, courtesy of a battering ram.

"Time to go." He grabbed her arm, reversed all the magic on the door, and Apparated them back to the place they'd left the car on the side of the road in the country. Fortunately, no one was there, so Harry removed the protective charm on the car and the rest of the charms on them. Natasha drove them away, continuing on around the countryside, where she completed a big loop and brought them back to Naples from a different direction than what they'd left.

"We're not scheduled to fly out until noon tomorrow," Harry pointed out when they arrived back in their hotel room. "What do we do until then?"

Natasha set the bag down and then grabbed his face and kissed him hard.

Harry returned the kiss as best he could, but it was obvious she was better at this. "W-what was that for?"

"Thank you, Harry. That was great work," she told him with a huge smile. "As to your other question, we go enjoy Naples. We just have to be back in less than six hours so we can pull the goodies out before the Shrinking charm wears off, just like you said during planning."

"Now that I've thought about it some more, there is a safer place." He pulled his trunk out of his pocket and expanded it. "Would you like to see the inside?"

"Yes," she said very curiously, watching as he opened the eighth latch on the front.

Harry cast a few spells at the doors and windows before he threw a leg over the side and told her, "Climb in."

"What were the spells for?" she ask as she followed him down a ladder into a room that was about five by eight meters and had various shelves and storage units, most of which had something stored on or in them.

"To protect us while we're in here. It's supposed to be really difficult to destroy the trunk, but technically you could be trapped in here. I knew a guy who was held prisoner in his own trunk for nearly ten months, but I'm pretty careful. Of course in this world, it would be a lot more difficult, but I still don't like taking chances."

"This is really impressive. I assume each latch takes you to a different room, but are all the rooms like this?"

"No," he answered as he conjured a work table for them. "The first compartment is the same size as the trunk. The rest are rooms but of varying sizes. There's even one that's a small apartment in case I'm stranded somewhere." He opened a couple of empty cabinets. "We can expand the artwork and leave it here until we need it, that way we don't have to worry about it unshrinking at a bad time."

She pulled out each of the small bags and they restored the size of each piece before storing it away. The larger pieces he just stood against the wall.

"Isn't that going to fall over when you move the trunk?" she asked, concerned about breaking it.

Harry chuckled. "No. You remember me telling you this was a dimensional pocket?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Since it's in another dimension, what I do in my dimension doesn't affect it. So I can turn my trunk upside down and nothing in here moves. The trunk is just the doorway to this place. That's why not just anyone can create these, it's difficult and it takes a lot of magical power. The guy who created this for me took nearly a month to do so because he couldn't create more than one room every two days and I had him put twelve of these in the trunk. It was also very expensive but I also didn't pay for it all either."

"Who did then?"

Harry chuckled. "It turned out that several of the terrorists in the war were distantly related to me and there was no one else to claim their estates. One of them was contested, but my fame worked to my advantage in that case." He grinned at her. "So I'm very familiar with stealing from thieves, for a loose definition of stealing."

She laughed with him as they finished their task.

"I'll show you one more," he told her as they climbed up the ladder.

This time, he opened the third latch. This room had a solid table and some comfortable chairs near the ladder, but the real attraction was the rows and rows of shelves of books, the shelves only far enough apart to walk between. The room was also only about five meters wide, but looked to be over thirty meters long.

"That's a lot of books!" She was really surprised. "I didn't think you were the studious type."

"I inherited three good-sized family libraries. I traded the duplicate books for new ones and bought a few more." He looked at them fondly for a moment. "I knew that if I survived and came to a new dimension, odds are I'd only have the knowledge I brought with me. I know a lot of everyday useful knowledge, but there is so much specialized knowledge I don't know. Of course," he grinned at her, "I knew a few very knowledgeable people on just about every subject, so I asked each what the best books were for that topic and made sure I had them."

"That's good planning," she said admiringly.

"I tried," he said as he led them back out.

They changed clothes and went out to enjoy the city. She grabbed his hand and whispered, "Act like we're boyfriend and girlfriend."

He didn't mind that and thought they had a good time. Dinner was especially good as he had real Italian food. He even got to talk to the chef for a few minutes about seasonings used and decided to make a few changes to his recipes when he got home.

After a most pleasant evening out, they returned to the hotel to have one more glass of wine and a little more talk. When they changed to go to sleep, Natasha didn't go into the bathroom, she just turned her back to him before changing into a long T-shirt. Harry found out Natasha liked lacy undergarments and he enjoyed the glimpses.

* * *

They left early the next day, returning home via Zurich. During the brief stop she had him open a bank account.

It was a long flight back, but they eventually arrived home in the late afternoon.

"Now what?" he asked.

She just smiled at him and picked up the phone. A few moments later, she had a room reservation at a nice hotel in New York City. Then she started calling the insurance companies and made appointments.

He thought he understood now. "So we meet them day after tomorrow at a neutral place and hand it over."

"Yes."

"And…" he started until her phone rang.

She pulled out her mobile and frowned at it. "I don't know who this is and no one I don't know should have this number." She answered it anyway, curious.

"I finally found you," the voice said. "You're a hard woman to find."

Natasha looked at the phone incredulously and then pressed the speaker-phone button. "How did you get this number?"

"I have my ways," he said. "Hey, since you just placed me on speaker-phone, does that mean the Wizarding genius is there?"

"Tony?" Harry asked.

"Hey kid, good to talk to you. Say, Bruce just left, so how about you come over to my place and I'll show you the lab I've got. You'll love it."

Harry looked at Natasha and saw her struggling to hold laughter in as the man's presumption. "Err, wasn't your place pretty well destroyed?"

"That was just my living quarters, but I've set up new ones two floors down for now. The rest of the building wasn't affected all that much, especially R&D."

"Men and their toys," Natasha groused.

"Oh, that reminds me, Pepper wants to meet both of you, so tomorrow at one. That lets me get up a little later and Pepper time to get some things done at the office in the morning. Pepper also says you have to stay for dinner."

Natasha looked at Harry, who shrugged and then nodded. "I suppose that would work," she said slowly.

"Great, we'll see you then, bye." Tony said in his hurried fashion.

She looked at her phone as she turned it off. "Did you notice he ignored my question about how he got this number?"

"Yeah, don't think he's going to tell you either," he said, enjoying her moment of annoyance with the quirky Tony Stark.

Natasha looked at him for a long moment, giving Harry the idea that she was thinking of a new idea that involved him.

"Harry, it's been a long day because of the traveling and I know it's a little early, but how about we have dinner soon, maybe watch a movie, then head to bed." She gently laid a hand on his shoulder. "If you don't mind."

He'd almost swear she batted her eyes at him, but he thought he'd imagined it. "Sure," he said, mostly agreeing with her. He had enough energy to stay up for awhile, but he could tell that he'd sleep well tonight.

"Wonderful, I'll have to go find the movie; I'm sure I saw it in the closet somewhere. It's an old classic with action that I think you'll love." She patted his shoulder before heading to the back.

As he started to fix dinner, he thought about her and her actions all day … well, actually starting yesterday. She had been extra friendly. There was the kiss when they'd finished their mission, not to mention the hand holding and extra touches on the arm and such as they walked around Naples. Zurich had changed her back to very businesslike, but once they'd reached the plane, her friendliness and playfulness had returned. He found her confusing, more than most girls. The only one who had her beat hands down was Luna.

Considering his own needs and desires, he did have to admit that he liked being around her. She challenged him in various ways, ways that he thought were generally helpful - socially being the most important. Natasha also provided companionship, which if he were honest with himself, he desired a great deal. He'd truly missed that since his breakup with Ginny. He supposed another woman could have provided that too, but the more he got to know Natasha, the more he decided she was a reasonable fit for him. Getting to know her and spending time around her was a lot of fun. She'd also introduced him to some interesting people.

After dinner, she pulled him into the living room along with their glasses of wine that she'd served. She started a movie called _The Karate Kid._ "Have you seen this one?" she asked.

"No, I've not seen many movies," he had to confess.

"This is a fun one. It also contains an important lesson." She moved a little closer to him and grabbed his hand as if they were on a date. "You can learn lessons and skills from unexpected people and in unexpected ways."

"What do you mean?" He was sure she was trying to telling him something, but he wasn't getting it yet.

"Just watch," she told him with a smile and took a sip of her drink.

— — —

By the end of the movie, he was feeling quite relaxed from the alcoholic drink. He wasn't drunk, he knew what that felt like. Natasha had her head on his shoulder and was snuggling too. She wasn't asleep, he could tell by the way she squeezed his hand slightly during the exciting parts of the movie.

He understood her cryptic remark better now. While he was left wondering if she was trying to equate herself with Mr Miyagi, he decided that it didn't matter at the moment.

When the movie ended, she turned the TV off with the remote control. "Did you like it?"

"Yeah, I did. It was fun. I have a feeling you showed me that for a reason though."

She smiled coyly at him. "I guess I have to admit that did have an ulterior motive. I'd like to start training you, Harry. I'm not sure just how good you can be, but I'm reasonably sure you can be above average if you want. It'd be fun to have someone like that around - useful too."

"Ah, I see," he said, trying to sound wise and like the old man in the movie.

That caused her to giggle slightly. She shifted a little so she could see him better. "Harry, I think I need to confess something to you, a couple of things really."

"Oh?" He wasn't really worried. He thought he knew what the worst she could do was and didn't think he'd be too upset, mostly disappointed if true.

Natasha sat up straighter and looked him in the eye. "Fury gave me orders to find out all about you and tell him. I've decided that I don't want to follow those orders, at least not any more. I've told him three things about you and I've decided that's it."

Harry kept himself very still, his worst fears being confirmed, at least partially. After all, she hadn't tried to kill him as some of his teachers had done. "What did you tell him?"

"He asked if you were the one to repair the damage in the city the first night and I told him yes."

"All right, that's not a problem. What else?" he asked.

"I've told him about your world being almost the same, except for the swap of Thor and his nine worlds for your secret society."

Harry considered that for a moment. "That's not really damaging either. And the last?" He had to give her credit for coming clean and being able to maintain eye contact.

"I told him that you said there is a spell for just about anything, assuming you learn it."

"That's not all that bad," he finally said. "I appreciate you telling me and not trying to hide it, but why did you decide to stop following his orders and tell me?"

She looked down for a moment and then looked at him again. "Because I think you deserve honesty. You're the most honest person I think I've ever met and you deserve the same."

"I'm not perfect," he protested.

"I didn't say you were," she told him, smiling for the first time since she'd started this part of the conversation. "Harry, you're special and I respect you for _who_ you are; that's not something I can say about very many people. I respect a lot of people for what they can do," she laid her hand over his heart, "but I respect you for who you are … the way you are. I … I'm also starting to like you."

His mouth suddenly went dry as he worked out what she meant. "You do? Why? We've just started to get to know each other."

She smiled and maintained eye contact as she moved and twisted until she was sitting on his lap, straddling him, putting her hands on his shoulders.

"We've done a lot of talking, or have you forgotten?" she smirked mischievously at him. "I think I know you better than any other man I spend time with since I left Russia." She paused and murmured, "Which is really sad when I think about it."

Shaking her head, continued normally. "I said I respect you, and I do. You have a standard and you stand by it, even if it means standing up to me and I know I'm not always the most pleasant of people. I can be very stubborn."

"I don't think I've noticed any problems," he said.

She laughed softly. "Harry, I've been trying to be on my best behavior around you. I think what impresses me most about you is that despite all the power and abilities you have, the things you can do, you still stick to your morals of right and wrong, your standard. That can be hard for me at times and I'd like more of that in my life. I'd like you in my life."

"I've already said yes to being a partner in your job, or really both jobs I suppose," he pointed out. "If aliens come again, I'll be right beside you."

"I'm glad," she replied, "but I'd like you in my life another way." Slowly, as if to give him time to stop her, she leaned forward and kissed him.

The kiss was simple at first. She started to run her fingers through his hair and his hands went to her waist on their own. By the time their lips parted, he was having trouble thinking.

"I want you, Harry; I want you in my life, to stay in my life."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were proposing to me," he teased her lightly and hoped that was a joke.

She chuckled for a moment and then kissed him lightly. "No, that will be your job _if_ things ever go that far which won't be any time soon, but I've enjoyed our time so far and I'd like to find out how good we are together. Is that asking too much?"

"So, boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Natasha smiled at him. "That's a start. Come to bed with me?"

He blinked purposefully several times as he worked through that. "Seriously? That fast? Tonight?"

"Why not? It's just another aspect of our relationship," she told him.

There was no doubt she was pleasant to be around, and attractive, although down right hot looking might be a better description. He did like her and respect her; her decision to tell him what she'd done instead of hiding it helped. But this?

"Natasha, I like you, I really do, but I think this is a little quick. I like sex as much as the next guy, but I'm also the sort of guy who thinks sex means something, or at least it should."

"All right," she conceded after a moment, "I can respect that. But can you also understand that to me, sex is also something that can be done for fun…"

"Of course it's fun," he agreed quickly.

"...for fun and something you sometimes want just because you want it, like scratching an itch," she finished. "I'll respect your decision to wait awhile, I'm not going to force you." She smiled sexily, "I might try to seduce you, but I'm not going to force you."

"Thanks, I think," he said drily.

"No sex if you don't want it, but come to bed and sleep with me, hold me, let me snuggle with you. Please?"

There was a huge question running through his head about if she had been put up to this, but he ruthlessly pushed it way. He was going to assume she was being honest with him, she seemed to be trying very hard to be so. If he found out she wasn't, she wouldn't like the results … but he'd cross that bridge if he ever came to it and hopefully he never would.

"Very well, but only on the condition that you don't try to start anything. No grabbing and things like that," he told her, really trying to command her.

"As you wish," she said as she rose and held out her hand to help him up. "Of course, if you feel like grabbing, I won't mind."

He did his best to ignore her wink before she turned and pulled him to the bedrooms. He stopped by his room to grab a clean T-shirt and change, wearing only it and his boxers. He brushed his teeth, as he did every night.

Walking into her bedroom, he saw her coming out of the bathroom wearing only her lacy red knickers, or panties he thought they were called here. The reality was that he was mesmerized by her practically naked form. She flipped off the lights and crawled into bed. "Coming Harry?"

Shaking his head at her antics, or he supposed that was the best word for her actions, he took off his wand holster and put it on the nightstand before sliding into bed. He had no doubt her lack of sleeping clothes was an attempt at seducing him.

Natasha moved over and laid her head on his shoulder and draped a leg over his, a hand going to his other shoulder. As if she'd forgotten, she stretched up and kissed him on the cheek before getting comfortable again. "Thank you, Harry."

Not quite sure what to think of his new girlfriend's actions, he put an arm around her shoulders which caused her to give a contented sigh. Even considering it all until he fell asleep, he came to no final conclusions that made sense to him. This was a new facet of her he hadn't expected. So for the moment, he was going to assume she was telling the truth. The most obvious guess for her actions was loneliness, which he could understand.

* * *

(A/N: Yes, Natasha is smart enough to know she can't take things faster than Harry will easily allow if she wants the relationship to last for more than her vacation.)


	5. Friends

(A/N: As a reminder, I'm following the movie's lead on the characters.)

* * *

**Chapter 5 - Friends**

Harry woke as just enough light was coming in the shaded window for him to see reasonably well. While he remembered moving during the night, they were back to their original position, her head was on his shoulder. They were covered by a sheet now, and her shoulder-length red hair was on his arm as well as over most of her face.

Carefully, he brushed her hair back to have a better view of her face. She had a softer look than when she was awake. Unfortunately, that movement of hair was just enough to disturb her as she slowly woke over the next minute.

"Hi," he said softly when she looked up at him.

With a smile, she said, "Hi," back as she rolled back to lay on her side and prop up her head with her hand and her elbow placed near his head so she could look at him more easily.

He couldn't help but notice that move exposed her breasts to him, which she didn't seem bothered by, or more likely was part of her plan to seduce him, he thought as he enjoyed the sight. "Sleep well?"

She continued to smile at him. "The best in a long time." Lightly caressing his chest with her free hand, she said, "There is one more reason I want you. You allow me to feel normal. When I'm with you like this, I'm not The Black Widow or Agent Romanova, I'm just Natasha. I don't get to feel this way very often."

Harry caressed her face and pushed a few strands of hair back. "I can understand that. It was hard for me to be 'just Harry' so I didn't date much. Honestly, I have very little experience, having only dated one girl seriously. I'm afraid you're going to have to guide me … maybe a lot."

"You're doing fine so far," she told him and kissed him lightly. "Tell me about her," she asked. "Don't compare us, just tell me a little about her and why it didn't work out, because if it had, I don't think you'd be here."

"Probably not, but I'm not sure she could have come if she'd wanted to; the magic wouldn't have allowed it." He was now thinking that the reason he could go through the portal and live was because he had all three Hallows.

He studied her light brown eyes for a moment and smiled. "Her name was Ginny. Her red hair was long and lighter than yours; she also had freckles. She was the youngest of seven children and the only daughter."

Natasha raised an eyebrow at that.

"Yeah, seven children, unusual by any standards and more so in the Wizarding world where most families only had one or two children. She was sweet most of the time, although she could be quite feisty when riled up. Surprisingly to me, she had a mean streak in her in regards to her oldest brother's wife, who was also a friend of mine, although not close. I think it was because she was jealous; her sister-in-law was exceptionally beautiful and Ginny never saw herself that way.

"She was also very competitive; loved our national sport: Quidditch. In fact she was so good at it she made first reserve on a professional team right out of school, which was fairly unusual.

"Ginny was almost exactly a year younger than I was, so when I returned to school after taking a year off from war, we had classes together for the first time. That allowed us to spend a lot more time together. You have to understand that we dated for about six weeks before I left school for the war. I broke up with her before I left for that year to try to keep her safe, then we got back together after the war.

"It all went well at first, but after a month or so, we started to have troubles. I don't know exactly what happened, but something did happen during the year I was away. She wouldn't talk about it at all nor would any of her friends when I asked.

"I suppose I wasn't much better as I only told her about a few things I went through while I was gone, but she wouldn't talk about her year at all. I even asked her parents once and they had no idea what the issue was.

"That was the point I started questioning us being together. If I couldn't trust her fully to share, what did that really say about us?"

"That's why you try so hard for honesty?" she asked.

"It's a large part of it, beside the fact that a lot has been kept from me while I was growing up, things I didn't really find out until about the time the war ended and a little after," he told her.

"Still," he continued, "I didn't want to give her up because I didn't have many close friends and I liked being with her most of the time."

He stroked her head again. "I think we both noticed a gap widening, but we tried to bring ourselves back together by having sex." He grinned at her. "It was a lot of fun. In fact, it was so good, it made me notice that the other times we had together just didn't work so well. When we were having sex or the times just before or after, our relationship was great; but when we were going through the daily motions of life, we didn't get along very well, arguing more often as time went by.

"Eventually, both of us realized it wasn't going to work long term and called it off. I'm sure the war changed me and I know it changed her. The couple that enjoyed each other so much before the war couldn't be found again after it." He sighed, "Sad really.

"When I realized things were going badly between us, I started researching various things. I had unrestricted access to the school's library, which helped a lot, and I could leave school on the weekends if needed. By the time we broke up officially, I had started most of the important tasks that I'd later need to leave. I hadn't decided to go through the portal yet, but I was seriously thinking about leaving Britain and things like my trunk would have played a large role there too.

"Over time, I found that my other best friends and I weren't as close as I thought. Most others I knew tried to pick up the pieces of their lives and put the war behind them … I was part of the war so I didn't hear from most of them much afterward. The couple of true friends I had left weren't enough to hold me there considering all the grief directed at me by those who hated what I'd done during the war and when I tried to clean up things afterward. So I left to find some peace."

She looked at him and considered what he'd said. "So, your reluctance is because you're afraid it'll happen again, that sex will be all we have?"

"Maybe. Probably." Honestly, he wasn't completely sure himself.

Natasha kissed him gently. "Thank you for sharing that. I'm sorry it didn't work out for you there, but I'm glad you came here and I met you. I think you're really special."

Slowly and taking care to flash him some more, she got out of bed. "Get up, we need to exercise and I've got a few things to teach you about defending yourself. After that, would you like to come take a shower with me?"

He snorted and shook his head as he grinned. "You don't stop trying, do you?"

"No, Harry," she said and gave him a seductive look. "That's what makes the Black Widow so good; fortunately, you only have to deal with me - Natasha."

She started getting dressed, so he got up and went to his own room to change while wondering just how much "trouble" he'd be in if she was seriously trying.

— — —

After a workout where Natasha tested him on a few things and said he had good balance and good reflexes, she showed him a few moves on how to defend himself without a weapon. He thought he could incorporate some wandless magic in with that, though he didn't mention that to her - keeping it as a backup for now.

They had an early lunch before she threw an overnight bag into his trunk and he shrank it down. Ready for some fun, he Apparated them to the roof of Tony's place. It was a good thing they had arrived there instead of one floor below because there were a lot of workmen trying to fix his previously destroyed residence.

Multiple workmen stared at them as they came down, wondering how they had arrived from the roof. It took a few minutes of explaining, but they made it to the elevator and soon found Tony and Pepper.

"Welcome," Tony told them boisterously. "Jarvis said you came down from the roof."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Harry said before he grinned. "You should have heard Natasha. She told them very matter-of-factly that a very quiet helicopter had dropped us off. The construction workers didn't look like they believed her, but they let us pass away."

"Not a problem and they're still getting used to all the weird things I do around here." Tony received a nudge, which caused him to look at his partner as she cleared her throat lightly. "Oh right … I'm sure you've already figured it out, but this is Pepper Potts, my…" He stopped and looked at her. "What are you now? I'm still chairman of the board."

"I'm the current president of Stark Industries and more importantly, someone who tries to keep Tony in line," she answered smoothly. "It's good to meet you and have you over. I've heard so much about both of you." She nudged Tony again when he didn't continue the introductions.

"Right, what she said," Tony picked it up again. "This is the famous Agent Natasha Romanova, also known as The Black Widow, and our newest member of the alien busting squad, I mean The Avengers, Harry Potter." Tony paused and looked at Harry with a calculating look. "We need to get you an Avenger name." Turning back to Pepper, the continued, "Harry also says he can do magic, and more than hocus pocus, which I hope he'll demonstrate for me?" he asked leadingly.

"Good luck on reforming Tony," Natasha said. "I think you may be making some progress, but you definitely have your work cut out for you."

"Yes, don't I know it," Pepper said with a smile.

"Hey, I'm right here," Tony protested.

"Oh, we know," Harry told him, joining in on the teasing.

"So, Harry, what do you say we head down to the lab and let the girls gab?" Tony started leading the way without waiting.

Harry shot Pepper an apologetic smile and walked after Tony.

Natasha said, "If you don't mind, Pepper, I'd like to go down and see the tests too. Maybe we could talk down there?"

"I don't see why not," Pepper agreed.

As the four of them walked onto the elevator, Harry just had to ask. "Tony, is it a requirement that any woman who is an Avenger or the significant other of one be a redhead?" He sent a smile at the redheaded Pepper.

Tony froze for a second as if he'd never thought about that. "I don't recall reading that in the brief, but I believe Agent Romanova might be able to give a better answer."

They all looked at her. "Are you seriously asking me that?" She looked at Harry and then Tony.

"Yes," both men answered her as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. Natasha didn't answer and just walked off, followed by Pepper.

"I'm going to take that for a no", Tony said as he walked to the lab door to enter the security code to open the door.

"Of course," Pepper said with a bit of long-suffering as she looked around the room, "Tony doesn't have extra chairs for us since he normally works alone."

"Allow me," Harry told her and pulled his wand out and conjured two chairs with lots of padding.

"Hey, I wasn't ready yet," Tony complained as he walked over to some test equipment.

In the meantime, Pepper was staring at the chairs and then slowly reached out to touch them, making sure they were real.

"Surprising but nice, isn't it?" Natasha said as she took a seat and made herself comfortable.

Hesitantly, Pepper sat. "Considering we had aliens and Thor, I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I am."

"I think I had a harder time dealing with the idea of Hulk," Harry commented as Tony turned an instrument his way. "Hey! Whoa! Careful with that or you may lose it!"

"What?" Tony asked, although he was smart enough to quickly point the sensor towards the ceiling.

"Err, magic and electronics don't go too well together, or that's been my experience," Harry explained. "I also hope you have another one of those in case you kill it testing me."

"Hmm, not at the moment. Jarvis? Order another energy analyzer and try to get it delivered today," Tony commanded.

"Right away, sir," came the British and slightly mechanical voice that could have passed for a butler.

"Slowly then." Tony slowly pointed the sensor back at Harry from three meters away.

"Nothing unusual." Tony pointed it at each of the woman. "No difference."

Harry lit his wand with a silent _Lumos_.

"There it is," Tony said as he slowly moved the sensor back to Harry. "Full spectrum too, which would account for it blowing out electronics." He looked at Natasha. "Do you always have your phone on when Harry does his thing?"

"Yes," she answered.

"Probably been lucky so far then, but you shouldn't have it on when magic could affect you. I wonder what it would do to my suit." Tony put the sensor down and stepped to the side and pulled on an arm of his Ironman suit. "Hit me, Harry, well, the hand please, not the chest, I don't particularly want to test that part."

Harry aimed at the glowing hand that Tony held as far away from him as possible. A Stinging hex caused the hand to flicker very briefly, but the glow quickly came back from dim to full strength.

"Jarvis, what happened?"

"Power in the glove momentarily dropped to ten percent but your battery restored the lost power," the AI answered.

"That was a simple one, right?" Tony asked. At Harry's nod, he said, "Something bigger."

After a moment's consideration, Harry cast a Concealment charm.

They all saw Tony's fingers disappear and the glow of his repulsor dimmed and started to flicker, trying hard to stay on.

"What the hell?!" Tony shouted and started to fling his hand as if trying to get mud off of it.

Natasha started to laugh, causing Harry to look at her in amusement, as did Pepper.

Finally, having mercy on him, Harry walked closer to make it easier to hit the moving target and cast a Finite at Ironman's hand. The fingers returned, but the repulsor blinked brightly and then stayed off.

"What the hell was that?" Tony asked, looking between his hand and Harry.

"That was a Concealment charm, something that shouldn't hurt you but would continue to work." As a demonstration, he cast a Concealment charm on Natasha's chair, which disappeared. It made it look like she was sitting on air in a position that shouldn't be possible without falling on her arse.

Curiosity overcame Tony and he walked over with his sensor while Pepper hesitantly reached out.

"I can feel it even if I can't see it," Pepper said.

"And I can detect the energy over it with this instrument. Jarvis?" Tony called, "Can you see or otherwise detect a chair under Agent Romanova?"

"No sir," the system reported.

Harry cast a Finite at the chair and it reappeared.

The next couple of hours continued like this, where Harry would do something while Tony analyzed it and explained things too. He noticed that while Pepper and Natasha participated in the conversation with various remarks from time to time, usually witty, they also seemed to hold their own conversation too. The women had laughed hard when Harry had turned one of Tony's screwdrivers into a grass snake as he had been grabbing for it.

An hour before dinner, the women left to prepare the meal.

When Tony finished another test with an explanation, Harry looked at him for a moment and mused that Tony was lot less egotistical sounding when he was working like this; some was still there, but it was less. A thread of their earlier conversation bothered him and he hoped he could help Tony in this way.

"Tony, I want you to know that I really appreciate you taking the time to explain most of what you're doing. When you decide to have children, I think you'll be a good dad."

Tony froze and then slowly looked at him. "Me, a dad? Are you insane? I'd be a terrible father."

"Why?" Harry asked seriously.

"Because I wouldn't," he replied strongly, "and it's something I'd prefer not to discuss."

"All right, I'll drop it if you'll give me one real reason, just one other than 'because'," Harry told him. "Because you've been a good friend to me so far and I think you could use that to be a good dad one day. I saw how interested Pepper looked earlier when children were mentioned, just as I saw you shy away from it. I don't understand why you wouldn't enjoy children with her."

Tony put his hand down on the workbench in front of him and stared at it for a moment. "Look, my father was never around when I was growing up and then he got himself killed and my mother with him. So I have no idea how a father is supposed to be like. Can we drop it now?"

"Thanks," Harry told softly. "You don't have to answer any other question on it, but I do have a story that might help you.

"I was fifteen months old when both of my parents were killed. I was dropped on the doorstep of my mother's sister in the middle of the night. While they took me in, it was not a place I should have been. I would have been better off in an orphanage and there were many nights when I prayed someone would come rescue me.

"Despite how horrid my uncle was to me, and my aunt wasn't much better, I look forward to having a family someday. I know I'll make mistakes, but I'm sure of a few things. Every time I remember how unloving my uncle was to me, that will make be that much more loving to my children. He didn't provide or care about me, so I'll do more to provide and care for my children. As he raised his hand to me and shouted horrible things, I'll never abuse my children. I remember his bad example and I'll know what not to do; in fact, I'll do the opposite. The rest I'll figure out as I go and let whoever is my wife help.

"So your father wasn't a good father. Use his example as what not to do," Harry said, watching Tony still look at the workbench. "Your patience with me today as a friend is what you need with children too, or so it seems to me, having been one not too long ago. At least you and I will never have the problem of having to work our arses off to provide for our children like most fathers do, or Natasha tells me you don't have that problem."

Tony finally looked at him thoughtfully. "We'll see," was all he said.

Harry smiled, glad he could help the man see things in a different way. Pepper really had brightened when Natasha had asked about children earlier.

Digging into his pocket, Harry pulled out a coin and tossed it on the workbench. "If you'd like something easier to work on, tell me how I can melt that down, because normal spells don't work on it too well and that's how most of my money is. I'm hoping there's a simple non-magical way to do it."

"What is it?" Tony asked as he picked up the gold coin. "Is it solid or just plated?" Hefting it a few times, he said, "I'm guessing solid."

"It's called a Galleon. I think it's solid, but I'm not sure. Those in charge of the Wizarding bank make them and they put special magic on them to protect them. I found that some of the other banks on the continent, that is Europe, gave me better exchange rates than in Britain, so I think that's another indication it's solid."

The other conversation left behind, Tony moved to another workbench and placed the coin on a special pad. He suddenly looked at Harry. "Can I cut this in half? You'll lose a little of it."

"Sure," Harry told him, "if you can."

"Jarvis, medium-powered laser, cut this coin in half." Tony backed up a couple of steps.

They watched an arm move from above and a red beam come down. It moved a little and then turned off.

Tony examined the coin and then slowly moved a finger over it, hovering for a moment, then touching it. "It's not even warm. Jarvis, high-powered laser, drill a hole through the middle. Use bursts in seconds following the Fibonacci series with one second pauses between bursts."

Harry looked at him. "What?"

"The Fibonacci Series is a series of numbers that slowly increases," Tony explained as a new laser arm started firing at the gold coin. The five second burst finally caused a hiss and pop. "Halt," Tony called and the two walked over to look.

"Looks like it worked," Harry said. "We can see the middle and it is solid."

"It also vaporized some of the gold, so you've lost some money, literally," Tony commented.

"Since it wasn't really spendable in that form and it might be now," Harry drew his wand and did a transfiguration spell. The gold changed shape into a small ball. "You did it," he said with a smile. "I wasn't able to do that before, so if this is done on each coin, then I can melt them down into bars and sell them for real money here."

"Jarvis, what would this sell for?" Tony asked as he dropped the golden ball onto a small scale.

"Based on prices as of seventeen minutes ago, that would sell for $1056.34, sir."

"Nice," Tony said in admiration and handed the golden ball to Harry. "How many of those do you have? A few dozen?"

"A small roomful," Harry said with a grin.

"Seriously?"

"Yep," Harry said as he walked over to his trunk, which he'd pulled out earlier and amazed the man with its dimensional properties. He opened the last compartment and dropped the ball into the pile of gold there. He also picked up five more coins.

"Is that compartment bigger than the trunk too?" Tony asked as he looked at the gold that came to the lip of the trunk.

"Yep," Harry said before he handed the five coins over. "Here, you can experiment on these to see if there is another way. You can keep them for your trouble."

Tony snorted, "I'm not going broke, but this is an interesting problem." He suddenly grinned like a kid in a candy shop. "Damn, Harry, you've given me months of research to do, starting with hardening my armor against your magic like I already do against EMP bursts. I'll try plain heat and then chemicals against these," he said, holding up the coins.

"It'll have to be really hot. I can generate fire, but even a full minute of that didn't melt a coin," Harry told him.

A short time later, Jarvis informed them that dinner was ready, so the men returned to Tony and Pepper's temporary apartment.

Harry thought they had a lovely dinner and then they slowly drank wine and talked for a couple of hours. He stood at the window and looked out over the bright and busy city as it neared time to go.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Pepper asked him.

"It is," Harry replied before he looked back at the other couple. "I'm really glad you invited us over. It's felt so normal, at least if I can ignore the fantastic view and the very expensive lab we spent most of the afternoon in," he said with a grin and looked at Natasha. "Maybe we could have them over sometime?"

"Only if you cook," his girlfriend said teasingly.

"That's possible," he agreed.

"You're going to let her make you cook?" Tony asked in a tone that indicated the only correct answer was 'no', which caused him to receive a frosty look from the two women.

Harry knew enough about girls to know not to touch that one, so he stayed quiet.

Natasha smiled suddenly and turned to their hostess. "Pepper, would you like to join Harry and myself for dinner next week?"

"I'd love to," Pepper agreed just as pleasantly. "When Tony finishes pulling his foot out of his mouth, he can fix himself dinner."

"Hey, I didn't mean it that way," Tony protested.

Harry shook his head and chuckled quietly. "This really has been great. Thank you to each of you and we'll invite you to dinner soon. Natasha?" He stepped over and held out his hand and pulled her up.

"I agree with Harry, thank you."

"Be sure to call me," Pepper told them as the four walked to the elevator. "I won't forget," she assured them.

Tony sighed and stopped arguing. "Thanks, Harry, for everything," he said seriously and shook Harry's hand. "Natasha," he said with a nod.

When the two visitors left, Tony looked at his partner. "I thought that went well, didn't you?"

"I did," Pepper agreed.

"Pep, do you really want children … not tomorrow," he added hastily, "but you know, some day?"

"Yes," she answered softly and looked at him quizzically. "What brought that up?"

"Just wondering," he said nonchalantly.

Pepper hugged him tightly.

— — —

Harry held Natasha's hand, both silent until they were in a cab on the way to their hotel. "I had a lot of fun, did you?" he asked.

"I did too," she answered. "Were you serious about inviting them over?"

"Yeah, I was. In some ways, it was strange because I felt like a normal adult for the first time. Minus my 'showing off'," he said that part very quietly, "it was a day with friends and I felt like it was the most normal thing in the world. It was wonderful," he admitted.

"I'm glad then. I enjoyed getting to know Pepper. We'll invite them out late next week."

Harry gave a long sigh.

"What?" she asked.

"You have to go back to your normal job the week after that." He turned to her. "Have you ever thought of doing something different? It's not like you have to have that job."

She glanced at him and then at the cabby.

He nodded understanding her message. "All I'm saying is that you have other options on how to spend your time."

"Why do you bring it up?"

"I'm really enjoying spending time with you," he replied. "I hope you're enjoying it too."

She smiled and nodded before she snuggled into his side and looked out the front window with a thoughtful look on her face.

When they arrived at their hotel, he let Natasha handle registering them. He was amused that the hotel had a young lady in a starched uniform in the elevator to press the buttons and take them to their floor.

The room itself was very luxurious. He was not surprised to find that the room had only one bed, not that he had a problem with that now.

Pulling his trunk out and expanding it, he levitated her overnight bag and a nice dress for her tomorrow out of a compartment and hung it up.

"What did you mean about options?" she asked as she put on a dab of perfume.

"Just that you don't have to work for SHIELD full time. Tony doesn't, he's only there for the big stuff. You don't need the money, we have the other job for that."

"Why?" she asked.

"So we can have more time together. Like I said in the cab, I've really enjoyed our time together so far," he admitted.

"Possibly," she said before leaving the bathroom and his sight for a moment.

As he was brushing his teeth, he almost choked on his toothpaste a minute later as he watched Natasha reappear via the mirror and then very slowly and provocatively take her clothes off behind him. Hurriedly, he finished and rinsed to turn around and watch her. She smiled as she took them all off.

Being completely naked, she glided over to him and proceeded to slowly undress him. "It's time for bed, Harry. Come sleep with me." She unhooked his trousers, but before she pushed them down, she said, "I'd decided I don't want sex with you, Harry."

"Y-you don't?" he asked amazed at her, especially considering what she was doing.

"No," she said as she took his shirt off and then reached for his trousers to push them down. "I don't want sex. I want you to make love to me. Make it special, make it just about us." She pulled the last of his clothes off and pulled a naked Harry next to the bed.

"Please, Harry," she whispered and then kissed him as she gently pressed her body to his. "I want it mean something for _us_."

"You'll tell me what you like and want?" he asked, while thinking she had her own equivalent of an Imperius curse.

"If you'll do the same," she whispered in his ear before nibbling on it.

Harry pulled her onto the bed. It was quite awhile before they went to sleep.

* * *

.


	6. Practical Magic

(A/N: For those who leave a non-plot related question in a review that I might be inclined to answer and do so as "guest", I just have to ask: Did you really think that thru? :)

* * *

**Chapter 6 - Practical Magic**

The next morning, Harry had trouble not grinning at Natasha while they had breakfast in the hotel's restaurant. She however, looked as calmed and collected as always.

"You're telegraphing," she told him.

"Is that a problem?" he asked. He certainly didn't think so.

After a moment, she smirked to herself and said, "I guess not; I've just never had anyone do that to me before." She looked at him a little more seriously. "Your other, Ginny, she wasn't what you … wanted in bed?"

"Ginny was a minx in bed. If you remember, I told you that's what caused us to realize our relationship wasn't working." Harry really didn't want to discuss this and wondered if she'd asked just to see if he gave the same answer. While he might compare the two in his head, he was reasonably sure he should never say that out loud. "What are you going to do about the third company we meet today? I agree with you that they almost certainly have someone selling information to thieves."

Natasha didn't appear to be bothered not to hear more about the other topic. "That's a problem. What if the person I mention it to is part of the criminal ring? How do I really know who to trust? Also, if the inside person does come and I figure out who he or she is, I probably won't have any proof."

Harry considered how to answer her as he finished his breakfast. "I can help that with my extra _efforts_," he said quietly as he picked up his cup of mostly passable hot tea.

"You can? Can you demonstrate?" she asked just as quietly.

"Back in the room."

She smiled ever so slightly. "I'm still trying to figure out how you escaped not having a good photo taken when you were fighting the aliens."

With a grin, he said, "I caused all pictures of my face to be fuzzy. I didn't want the fame, so the only clear pictures of me were from the back, which does a lot to hide my identity."

"There really is a spell for about everything." She looked a little envious. "Ready to go?"

He nodded and they left, Natasha already having charged the meal to their room.

Since they had nearly half an hour before their first client came, Harry told her. "Write some questions on a piece of paper, then the answers on another. I'll ask and then tell you if you're lying or not. Make the last one something you're prefer not to tell me and that you'll try to protect."

She looked dubious, but wrote three questions on a piece of paper and the answers to each on their own piece of paper. She handed the list of questions to Harry and kept the answers.

He pulled his wand and silently cast Legilimens, making sure she saw him wave his wand at her and he held it on her. "What is your favorite color?" he asked.

"Pink."

"Wrong."

"Jade green like your eyes."

"Not really, but close."

"Fine, teal."

"That's not a real green," he commented. He was impressed that despite lying to him, he couldn't tell by her expression.

"Grass green."

He nodded and pointed to the paper.

Natasha pouted and opened the first paper and showed him. It said "green like grass". "I'd say lucky guess, but there are a lot of colors and you knew the shade."

"There was no guessing, it was magic," he told her and looked at his paper. "What's your favorite island?"

"Ireland."

He laughed, "Try again."

"Tahiti."

"We'll have to go there sometime so you can show me why." He pointed at her hand and she opened it so he could see "Tahiti" on it. "Now, that I've shown you I can tell when you're telling me the truth with a spell, let's try the last one.

"This will be different. I'll cast one Compulsion spell on you to tell the truth and put my wand up. I won't use the other spell to know if you're telling the truth. The point is to make you say the truth, to make a confession so someone else could hear it.

"In my world, this spell is frowned upon but it's not illegal. There are ways to force a person to tell the truth, but it's considered illegal to do on a person without permission. So the compulsion spell is generally used to strongly encourage someone to tell the truth. I will give you a hint that it can be defeated, but it takes a lot of will power. I can do it, but I don't know if it's just because I have a strong will or if it's because I'm magical." He grinned, "Or it could be both, but we'll find out with you. Don't worry, it won't physically hurt you. Ready?"

Natasha nodded, not looking quite so sure now.

Harry held out his hand and she put the folded paper that was the final answer; he held it unopened at his side. Looking at the question sheet, he cast the compulsion spell and asked the question as he put his wand away. "What do you think of me?" He was a little surprised by her question, but perhaps this was her way of telling him without saying it directly, or not as directly.

Natasha struggled for a few seconds, obviously trying to resist, before she blurted out, "I find you fas - fas - fascinating," stuttering and making a valiant effort to not give him the truth, but she couldn't help herself, "and strangely … irresistible, I want you … like no one else I've ever met," she finished weekly and looked down in defeat.

Opening the last paper, Harry saw that answer on there and pulled his wand out to cancel the spell on her. With a gentle a tone as he could, he used his Gryffindor courage to be as just blunt with her. "I find you to be hot, intelligent, amazing, as well as bloody confusing, which adds up to be a lot of fun in a way I never would have expected; I really do like being around you."

"I couldn't stop myself," she said with extreme disappointment.

He stepped forward and pulled her into a hug. "I'm really proud of how well you did though. Most people just blurt out the truth like you started and say everything. But you fought back and I think came close to beating it. If you were magical, I think you might have. I won't do that to you again," he promised.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Go splash some water on you face or whatever you need. I'll get the three pieces for the first company out of the trunk and set them up, all right?" He felt her nod and turn from him, heading to the bathroom and closed the door behind herself.

He felt bad about that, but she had asked and it probably was instructive for her. The problem was he felt guilty now.

With a shake of his head, he opened his trunk and climbed into the storage area and retrieved the three pieces they needed for this client. He then closed his trunk and then laid the jeweled pieces on their table. He did have to admire them; there were some large jewels used.

She came out a few minutes later and kissed him gently before saying, "Don't be upset with yourself, I asked for that. I appreciate you sharing your feelings too." She kissed him a little harder before turning away to check on the items they were about to, for all practical purposes, sell back to the owners via the insurance company that had covered them. In some ways, the reward for bringing them back was a salvage fee.

"There is a charm to help calm a person," Harry said, still feeling a little guilty even with her assurance. "I could give you a light one."

"No thank you. I'll use this edge to my advantage." She stepped back and caressed his face for a moment before walking to the door when someone knocked. They were exactly on time at nine sharp.

Harry stood back and watched it all, letting Natasha handle it. A manager, an inspector, and two security people walked in, all in plain suits. Harry decided he would play security person for their side and stood off to the side by the door to the bedroom.

Half an hour later, the inspector was certain these were the real pieces of art that had been lost. Natasha brought out her laptop top, logged into their Swiss bank, and entered her account number. The manager entered his number and authorization code and she was paid.

When the day was done, she'd transfer half the amount into his account and he'd have a little over half a million dollars. That was pretty good for about an hour's worth of real work, he thought.

The three small pieces were loaded into a normal looking suitcase that was very padded on the inside. After the group left, Harry looked at her and commented, "That was easy."

"This is the easy part, unless the criminal we took them from didn't have the real items and these are fakes," she replied. "That's happened to me twice."

"We still have that one bronze statue that no one seems to claim," he said, implying his question.

She shrugged. "If we can't find another owner before our vacation is up, we can ship it back to him. We do have his address in Italy. Maybe we'll travel to Paris and ship it from there."

They pulled out the next two pieces they needed. Harry conjured two easels for the paintings.

At ten, the next insurance company came. The process was the same except a flat crate was used to take the paintings away, which the inspector rolled away on a two-wheeled dolly.

Eleven o'clock brought the third company to retrieve five paintings and a small jeweled horse statue. This company had two inspectors, and two delivery men that also looked like they carried a gun under their coat. Despite having six pieces of art, this group finished in about half an hour as well due to each inspector only having to look at three items.

As the delivery men packed the art in the crates they'd brought with them, one of the inspectors came over to Harry. "Do you mind if I use your restroom?"

"No, help yourself," Harry told him and opened the door to the bedroom area. He wasn't concerned as they'd packed all of their things this morning. Only his trunk was visible and it was closed.

—

Natasha saw one of the men head into the bedroom area, but since she didn't have anything out, she didn't worry. She turned back to the manager and they transferred the payment for bringing in the stolen artwork.

Just as that was finished, she heard a yelp and a loud thump, as if someone had been thrown against the wall. Everyone froze for a second except for Harry who leapt through the doorway and into the bedroom. She slammed her laptop closed and picked it up before running after him, cursing herself for not having a gun on her - at least she had a concealed knife.

She was the first of the rest to enter the bedroom and she came to a sudden stop three steps in. Against the wall across from his still closed trunk was the man who had left a minute ago. He looked very disheveled and dazed. Harry was standing over the man and full of rage with a cocked fist, one motion short of swinging the blow that might break his jaw, or more.

"What were you doing in here?" he asked in a quiet and deadly voice, one that commanded an answer.

The man was sweating and barely hesitated in answering. "I was searching your room to find out about you. I wanted to know how you got these back."

"Did you try to open my trunk?"

"Yes," the man croaked in fear.

Harry's eyes narrowed. "Are you selling information to the thieves to help them steal the art?"

"Yes," he whispered.

Natasha had no idea how he had done it so quickly, but she now understood. Harry had cast a Compulsion charm on the man to make him tell the truth. "Who do you give the information to? How does the process work?" she asked, trying to sound as commanding as Harry had.

"I don't know, I've never met them. They call me and put money in my account when I give them information," the man whimpered and Harry took a step back and relaxed his stance, but he was still wary.

Natasha turned to the security guys. "Call the police." Looking at the manager. "We suspected the thieves had an inside man. Looks like we found him. Perhaps you could pick up our expenses in exchange for finding him?"

The manager was rubbing his forehead. "Perhaps." He sighed. "This is going to be a PR disaster."

"Spin the story like you caught him during an internal audit," she suggested.

"We suspected something like this, but we could never find a suspect or anything in common between the thefts," the manager complained.

"If I may suggest, question him as soon as possible. It's very likely he'll tell you the truth for the next few hours," Harry told him.

The manager looked at Harry. "How did you get him to confess?"

"He obviously tripped and hit his head against the wall," Natasha said quickly. "That left him dazed and susceptible to answering questions given to him in the correct tone of voice - standard interrogation technique." It was a crude variation of a real technique, although usually there were drugs involved to help it along. She noticed that everyone seemed to buy her story and Harry gave her a grateful look.

It was nearly two hours later before the police left with the thieves' accomplice along with statements from everyone.

Natasha looked at Harry after they were alone and he shrunk his trunk to put it in his pocket. "You weren't kidding when you said no one else should try to open that."

He grinned at her. "No I wasn't. Maybe I'll key you into the protective wards on it … someday. Shall we go home?"

"Yes," she agreed. "I've already called the front desk and checked out. We can leave from here."

Harry put his arm around her waist and Apparated them to her house on Long Island.

"Hey, maybe you should call Pepper and invite them over before they get too busy next week," he suggested before he went to put his trunk away and pull her things out, officially moving into her room.

She nodded and pulled out her phone and called the number Pepper had given her. A few minutes later, she hung up as Harry walked back in. "They'll be here tomorrow night as Tony needs to be back in California before Monday morning. Since it'll be Friday night and it's a long drive, I hope you don't mind that I invited them to spend the night and go back Saturday morning after breakfast."

"That's fine, although I'll need to go shopping for groceries tomorrow," he told her. "How about a walk down the beach? That sounds relaxing after our day today."

"Sure, let me go to the bathroom and then change," she told him, walking that way. In private, she sent a text message before turning her phone off. She really didn't want to be disturbed for a while.

* * *

"Two people just arrived," Harry said as he pulled the roast from the oven and glanced at the clock. "I guess it's the engineering part of Tony that makes him punctual?"

"Or more likely his companion," Natasha countered teasingly as they heard the sports car park next to the house and she went to answer the door.

Their two visitors entered a moment later to see Harry pulling a tray out of the oven.

"You weren't kidding, she did make you cook," Tony teased him.

Natasha snorted. "He's cooking because we thought you're like better food. You wouldn't starve if I made dinner, but he really is the better cook."

Harry slide the little pastry looking things off of his tray and into a basket, pleased with the results. "Tony, if you'll grab a wine from that cabinet over there. It should go with roast; I thought you would pick better than me."

While Tony looked over the bottles in the specially cooled cabinet, the women took the food to the table, which was otherwise already set.

"What are these?" Tony asked, pointing to the little pastries while he poured the wine as they seated themselves at the formal dining table.

"Yorkshire pudding, something of a British specialty that I thought you might like."

"I thought you called 'the pudding course' what we call dessert," Tony half asked.

Harry chuckled. "That is true, but these aren't real pudding, although I do have some custard tarts for _dessert_," he replied.

"They look and smell great," Natasha said in a staged whisper that everyone heard easily.

Pepper took a bite of the pastry-like food and her eyes went wide. "This is good." She looked at Natasha and did her own staged whisper. "I think you should keep him when he can cook like this."

"I've seriously considered it," Natasha replied with a knowing smile, which she turned to Harry and then winked.

Tony took his own bite and chewed thoughtfully, evaluating it carefully. "Careful Harry, you're making the rest of us look bad." They laughed and enjoyed the meal.

— — —

After dinner, at Natasha's suggestion, they all went to change into their swimsuits, after Tony retrieved their belongings from the car. Harry had him park the car in the garage and closed the door, as the "STARK05" on the back of the little red sports car made it fairly obvious who was there. Harry couldn't help but notice that Tony brought in a red metallic suitcase that was the same color as his Ironman suit. He had no idea why Tony would bring a combat suit on an overnight trip.

As Tony started to grab another bottle of wine to take out to the hot tub, Harry called to him. "Don't bother with the wine, I've got something else. Take four of the smaller glasses instead." Tony nodded an acknowledgement. Harry went back to the bedroom for a moment. When he joined the others, he had a very different looking bottle.

Natasha's eyes lit. "Did you bring out one of your bottles?"

"Yes," he answered as he opened it. At his guests questioning looks, he said, "It's called Ogden's Firewhisky, a drink from where I came. I have a limited supply and can't make any more, but I thought I'd share a bottle tonight."

He filled each of the glasses half full. The other three gasped when little tongues of flame danced on the surface of the drink.

"Is that normal?" Pepper asked as she took her glass.

"That's where it got its name," Harry told them with a smile. "Give it a moment and the flames will go away and you can drink it - although we'll gulp the first one."

Tony was looking at it with a critical eye.

"Harry says it's better than vodka," Natasha told the engineer.

As the flames died out, Harry lifted his glass in a toast. "I really appreciate all of you and how you've treated me. To friends."

"To friends," they echo before gulping the small drink.

Pepper had the most trouble and coughed hard, bent over with her face near the water they were sitting in. Tony and Natasha blinked furiously for a moment.

"Wow," Tony said quietly, letting out a small puff of smoke with the word.

Natasha laughed and a puff of smoke came out of her mouth too.

Harry just smiled and breathed out slowly.

"That's got a kick," Tony told him while Natasha nodded.

Pepper was still trying to recover her breath, which Tony helped by patting her on the back. "What the hell is in that?" she asked with exasperation and still a little breathless.

"Whisky and a bit of magic," Harry replied, still enjoying his friends' reaction.

"You could make a killing with that if you could make more," Tony told him and held out his glass for more.

Harry refilled all of the glasses. "I have no idea how. It was an Ogden family secret."

With the toast done, the second glass was taken in sips, with Pepper taking the smallest ones.

The rest of the evening was spent in the warm water telling stories, which became more outrageous as the magical whisky was consumed. Tony and Natasha had the most of the drink and told most of the stories. Harry told about fighting a basilisk and a dragon.

At the end, Pepper had made her second glass last the rest of the evening and Harry had only had three, so they were the most sober. They each helped their partner to the proper bedroom, with Tony hanging onto the bottle.

Harry found out that a half-drunk Natasha was a lot of fun in bed and had to shoot a silencing spell on each of the walls.

* * *

Harry wasn't sure what it was at first, but something yanked him from sleep. Looking at the clock, he saw it wasn't even eight in the morning yet. A few seconds later, he figured out the source of the strange feeling and it caused him to sit straight up in bed. It was his alarm ward. He knew Natasha didn't have any deliveries, like milk or the newspaper, so he treated this seriously.

"Wha'?" Natasha slurred, woken by his movements. As she rolled over, she groaned, "Oh my head. I haven't had a hangover like this in a long time."

Grabbing his wand, he cast a Sobering charm at her. It wouldn't make her fully sober, but it would take away a lot of her misery. "Get up quick, someone just entered the property."

She rubbed her head. "I don't know what you just did, but thanks." Forcing herself up, she followed his lead and grabbed her pants and shirt off the floor, ignoring the rest. Harry skipped the shirt in favor of shoes.

Harry yanked the door open and knocked once on the closed door across the hall. "We have an unexpected visitor with unknown purpose." Turning to head towards the front door with wand in hand, he noticed Natasha come after him with her gun in hand. He pointed at the front door and she nodded.

He took a position behind the wall to the dining room, while she ducked behind the wet bar. As he heard steps on the front porch, he saw movement to his left. Looking over, he saw Ironman standing there, or really the top half of Ironman ending in boxers and hairy legs. Pepper was further back in the hallway in her robe looking very nervous.

Considering what Natasha had felt like this morning, Harry was amazed Tony had been able to crawl out of bed and get that much of his armor on. He supposed Tony had just had a lot of experience with hangovers.

The lock turned and the front door opened; no doorbell or knock was used. Natasha pointed her gun but waited for a split second to see who it was. Likewise, Tony hesitated, although his outstretched hand was glowing. Harry had no need to wait before firing, so a light blue beam streaked across the room to hit the unexpected visitor in the chest before the door was fully open. Before the person could hit the ground, another spell caught the stiff figure and pull it in, setting the bluish person on the couch.

"Harry! You should have waited before you fired. She's on our side," Natasha chastised him.

He flicked his wand at the front door and it closed. "My weapon didn't hurt her," he pointed out as he walked over to see the woman who could only move her eyes. "She does look a little familiar. Who is she?"

Tony's helmet came off. "Agent Hill of SHIELD." He looked his hostess. "How are you moving so well after all we drank last night?"

"Uh, well…" she stammered and looked at Harry, who shot a Sobering charm at Tony and hit him in the head with it.

"Whoa!" Tony staggered a little. "There's some magic I could get used to. Not perfect, but I think I could find my ass with both hands now."

"Tony! Behave." Pepper admonished him as she came forward to join the others and looking much more relieved over a moment ago.

"You knew she was here because of your alarm ward," Natasha half-asked, half-stated.

"Yes," Harry answered. "It a fun trick someone taught me. I knew not only that she was here, but that it was only her."

"I don't mean to spoil the party," Pepper said, jumping in, "but shouldn't you let her go? She looks like she wants to say something the way her eyes are darting about."

"Err, right, just as soon as we know for sure it's her and not an imposter," Harry replied and looked at his girlfriend. "Could she be an imposter? That's probably harder here than in my world, but I think we should be careful since she was unexpected."

"He has a point," Tony agreed. "I didn't care for the last unexpected visit I was a part of. Being kidnapped wasn't fun." Pepper put a comforting hand on his metallic shoulder with a light click from a ring and stepped closer to him.

Natasha walked forward and dug into the small pouch at the visitor's waste and pulled out a billfold. Opening it, she showed a SHIELD badge. "It's really Maria." She looked expectantly at Harry.

"Fine," he said and cancelled the Full Body Bind.

"Thanks," Maria said sarcastically. "Although it is good to see that you're still alive," she told Natasha. "I must say it's surprising to find all of you here … having a party and not dead."

"Why wouldn't we still be alive?" Natasha asked.

"The director tried to get ahold of you and he hasn't been able to for over 24 hours. Since this was the last place your phone registered with the system, he sent me here first." Maria looked between her friend and a shirtless Harry. "Although, I can now guess as to what you've been doing."

Harry looked away and did his best not to blush; seeing Tony smirk at him didn't help.

Natasha, as cool as usual, just looked back. "I turned my phone off because I didn't need it and I was on vacation."

"Sure," Maria said with a sly grin, sounding unconvinced.

As it started to get awkward, Harry spoke up quickly. "We haven't had breakfast yet, would you like to join us, Agent Hill?"

"What are you making?" Tony asked quickly. "If it's anything like last night, I'll take two."

"Tony!" Pepper rebuked him in a hoarse whisper.

"What? It was really good," Tony defended himself.

"Thanks," Harry said a little bashfully. "I need to go finish getting dressed, but I'll start in a few minutes." He left hastily, followed by the other three.

— — —

He came out a few minutes later to find Maria looking around the main rooms.

"The party must not have too wild; the place is still clean," she commented.

Harry started pulling bowls out and set a couple of pans on the stove to warm. "I guess not. Not sure I've really ever been to a wild party. I did enjoy last night though."

"I guess you're enjoying your vacation with Natasha?" she asked with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Why wouldn't I? She's a very fun and pleasant person," he answered. He started chopping the vegetables in front of him and hoped she ended this line of questioning soon.

"Somehow I bet you do find her very fun and pleasant," she shot back, her statement dripping in innuendo.

"If you'll step out onto the back porch, I'll show you how unpleasant I can be too," Natasha said from right behind her, having snuck up silently behind her fellow agent.

Maria whirled around in surprise and took a step back. "I didn't know you were there."

Harry looked at his girlfriend and smiled. She was in one of her leather jumpsuits and had her "work expression" turned on her friend.

When Natasha didn't say anything but just looked intently back, Maria took another step backward. "All right, let's step outside and talk." She turned and walked towards the back door.

Natasha looked at Harry and blew him a kiss before her mask returned and she followed the other agent out.

A moment later, both Tony and Pepper came out, dressed normally.

"Where's our minder?" Tony asked as he went over to the coffee machine and started filling it as if it was his own home.

"She and Natasha are out back having a conversation," Harry answered as he started mixing ingredients together. "If there's a cat-fight, I know who I'm routing for," he said with a grin.

"While I don't know Agent Hill very well," Tony replied, "I think that'd be a short fight." He leaned around the corner and looked out the window in the back door. "Yeah, I can feel the love from here," he said very sarcastically.

"Where do you plan to go on your vacation?" Pepper asked, looking and sounding as if she was searching for some bit of normalcy this morning.

"Don't really know," he answered. "Natasha mentioned something about taking a tour around New England."

"That sounds very nice," Pepper told him. "There's a lot to see and do here in New York and further northeast. It's a nice time of the year too."

The back door opened and the two agents came back in. Maria looked very introspective and wasn't nearly as talkative.

Natasha came over and put her arm around Harry's waist, looking like everything was as it should be. "What's for breakfast?"

"Just omelets and toast. There's some oranges in there if you'd like to make us some juice. I think Tony put the coffee on. I'll make some tea soon," he rattled off as he started cooking two omelets at the same time.

"That sounds good," Pepper smiled. "Can I help?"

"Err, yeah, turning some of that bread into toast would be good." He looked over his shoulder. "Agent Hill, since you know where things are, would you set the table? I assume you're still joining us?"

"I'll be happy to help," Hill said very politely and went to work.

With everyone busy, it didn't take long to make breakfast. Harry took his seat at the table and looked around, mostly focusing on Maria and his girlfriend. He found it amusing that Natasha was giving her friend the cold shoulder.

"So, why did you drop by?" Harry finally asked Maria during a lull in the stilted conversation.

Maria seemed to regained most of her composure and shot Natasha a stern look and replied, "As I said earlier, we wanted to make sure everyone was all right. It's not every day a level ten agent drops off the grid."

"Not even for vacation?" Harry asked, surprised.

She sighed and looked at him like he was a child. "We wouldn't call except in an emergency, but we stay reachable." She ended her statement with a look of rebuke at Natasha.

It wasn't too hard to figure out what the conversation out back had been about. Interestingly to Harry, Natasha ignored the statement and look, as if she didn't care what Maria Hill thought, and probably Director Fury, he added to himself. His thought was confirmed by Tony.

"Is that really what's getting Fury's goat?" Tony asked pleasantly as he finished off his omelet before reaching for the serving platter to slide another omelet onto his plate. "I would think Fury would have other ways to reach out and touch someone, other than to send another level ten agent out. Or is it a rule that only a level ten can go find another level ten?"

A small smile graced Natasha, as she said, "She's only a level nine."

"Why would you care, Mr Stark?" Hill ignored her colleague's correction and turned her gaze to the billionaire, who shed the disappointed look as easily as Natasha had.

"Who said I cared?" he returned. "I just find it strange, considering that Fury must have a lot more important things on his mind than an agent on vacation ... considering last week."

Pepper was staying as far away from this part of the conversation as Harry was, and she looked even more uncomfortable than he felt.

"Director Fury cares about all of his people," Hill defended her superior.

"Hmm," was all Tony said, as if he'd never considered that.

Harry hid his smile behind his cup of tea, glad he wasn't Maria Hill right now.

"Harry, we'll be California for the foreseeable future. If you're in the area be sure to pop in," Tony told him before he wiped his mouth. "And if you ever find yourself bored, I'd pay you quite bit to come be my chef. The benefits package would be enticing, which includes playing in my lab."

"I'd doubt you'll ever be that bored," Pepper said with a look at her significant other than told him to stop being an idiot, "but you're always welcome to come see us."

"Thanks for invitation. I don't know when we'd be out there, but we will stop by if we are," Harry assured them.

"Definitely," Natasha agreed as their two invited visitors rose. "We don't have much of a schedule, so it'd be short notice."

"That would still be great," Tony told them. "I hope you don't mind that we leave so soon, but we really need to be going. I need to be back in Malibu by this evening."

"Not a problem," Harry replied. "Let me help you get your suitcases."

The men left to get the suitcases while Pepper and Natasha walked out the front door, leaving Maria Hill at the table and not looking very happy.

A few minutes later, the Starks drove off, or at least Harry thought of them that way. He pulled out his wand and levitated Hill's car to the other side of the driveway so Natasha could pull her car out. He wondered how long Agent Hill would puzzle over that.

Back inside, Harry went to get his trunk, Natasha having packed everything they needed when she changed clothes and before she came out.

In the living room, he saw the two of them staring at each over. "Just give Fury my message," Natasha said. "We'll see everyone next Saturday morning. Oh, and clean up duty is yours since Harry cooked."

She turned and walked out the front door in long hurried strides. Harry smiled politely and nodded. "Agent Hill."

Natasha had her sports car revving by the time he climbed in. She donned her sunglasses and then stepped on the gas pedal, backing the car out of the garage and down the driveway faster than most could have driven down the driveway forward. A squeal brought them to a stop in the street and another squeal started them forward and away from the house.

"Feel better?" he asked.

She looked at him and smiled before laying hand on his thigh and squeezing it slightly. "Yes. I find it frustrating when I'm not trusted. That's your fault, really," she teased.

"Mine?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes. You've really opened my eyes to a few things, in a good way."

He wanted to ask 'what', but wasn't sure he was prepared to hear the answer and also thought he probably wasn't cleared to know, so he left that alone. "What was your message to the Director?"

"I'm on vacation and I'll turn my phone on next Saturday. If he doesn't like that," she paused and looked at him, "I'm sure he can figure out the rest of the message."

Harry had to laugh at that, as she'd intended. "So where are we going?"

"Niagara Falls. I hear it's beautiful and I've never been." She grinned at him. "I made reservations for a few days. I got a good rate on the honeymoon suite too."

"You did?" he asked, not sure if he believed her or not. She did like to tease him.

She pulled the zipper on the front of her suit down a few inches. "Tell me, Harry, does it look like I have anything on under this?"

He couldn't help but notice the enticing cleavage and not a hint of a bra. "Err, not that I can see." When she didn't say anything else but only looked at him with a finely manicured raised eyebrow to complete her smirk, he suddenly figure out what she was implying. "Oh!"

Natasha grinned and concentrated on driving for a moment. "Now that I have a more open mind, let's talk about our options, Harry."

As they discussed what they could do in the future, he noticed that she hadn't pulled her zipper back up.

* * *

(A/N: Just 1 last little chapter to wrap this up.)


	7. Adjusting

(A/N: Time to wrap this up. There's a bigger note at the bottom.)

* * *

**Chapter 7 - Adjusting**

As he woke, Harry was trying to remember if he was in Connecticut or Rhode Island. After a moment, he decided it didn't really matter. What mattered was that it was Saturday morning. Their time of playing tourist and looking at nature and interesting places was over for the moment.

He slowly woke up his girlfriend, admiring her curves as she stretched.

She looked at him for a moment. "Thank you for the best vacation I've ever had."

"I can say the same, but it's not quite as meaningful since it's the only vacation I've ever had," he teased.

A laughed escaped her, but she turned serious fairly quickly. "Are you sure about our plan, Harry? I mean, I like the idea, but it might not turn out like we want."

"What's the worst that could happen? We have to go buy a house?" he joked.

"No, the worst is we'd be on the run, but I'm reasonably sure it won't go that far. Come take a shower with me and then I can find out if you can really take us back to Long Island from here." Gracefully, she rose and then gave him a coy look before heading towards the bathroom, not worried in the least that she was totally nude.

With a smile, Harry followed, in the same state of dress.

An hour later, they walked out of the old light house on a small island that had been converted into a bed and breakfast. They didn't have long to wait for their ride to pick them up. Harry would have Apparated back from the little island, but their hosts would have wondered about that, so the couple waited for the small boat to ferry them.

Back on shore, Natasha let Harry behind the driver's wheel since she'd recently taught him to drive. He carefully drove down the road until he could pull off at a wide spot where it didn't look like anyone could see them. Using his wand, he tapped the car. "_Portus_. Touch the car," he directed.

She put one hand on the steering wheel like he had done and the other hand on the door handle.

"Activate," he said as he touched his wand to the wheel. He felt the pull behind his navel and a few seconds later they were in the garage of her house on Long Island.

"That's impressive," she told him, sounding like she really was impressed.

"That's magic," he said with a grin. "Time for step two." He stepped out of the car and pulled his trunk out.

She pulled out her phone and made a call while exiting the car. "Agent Hill, good morning. I'm checking in to get your coordinates. … No, you don't need to send transportation for us. … Yes, GPS coordinates will work fine. … Very good, and your altitude? We don't want a mid-air collision. … Thank you, we'll see you shortly." She turned the phone off and put it in a pocket.

Natasha gave him the coordinates as she sat down behind him on his broom. "We don't have to be outside?"

"Nope," he told her. "You said ten thousand feet?"

"Yes."

"I'll go for 150 meters over that. I noticed it wasn't hard to see the helicarrier when we were above it before. Hang on." When he felt her tighten her grip, he Apparated them to the coordinates given. Apparating by coordinates was harder, so that was another reason he wanted to be above their target, just in case he was off.

A few seconds later, they popped into a stiff cold breeze. Looking around, Natasha pointed mostly behind her and to the right. "Only about a kilometer off, that was pretty good."

"Thanks," he told her as he turned his broom around to face the large ship. "Want to have some fun or shall we do it the easy way?" he said with a grin, thinking about what his godfather might do in this situation.

"Will the fun way involve guns pointing at us by surprised people?" she asked.

"Fine," he said with disappointment, "we'll do it the easy way." He Apparated them to the deck of the ship, landing next to the door.

Natasha entered the access code and opened the door while Harry shrunk his broom down and put it in the inside pocket of his jacket. She led the way in.

An alarm went off and Hill barked out, "Bogey off the starboard side, about a half mile out and 500 feet above us."

Fury practically ran out of his office. "How did it get this close before we noticed it?" he barked, remembering what had happened recently when a compromised Clint Barton had suddenly shown up. The helicarrier was fully repaired as of only two days ago, and only because they had worked around the clock.

"Don't know, sir. Whatever it is, it's small, the wrong shape to be a missile, and it's hovering, not moving towards us," she answered before she verbally exploded. "It's gone!"

"What?" Fury hurried down to her station to look at the data.

"Sir," a crewman from nearby got their attention a moment later. "The outside hatch has been opened. The code used was Agent Romanova's."

Hill relaxed. "I didn't think she could get here that quickly. She hung up less than a minute ago and I traced the call back to our house."

"I don't think it was _her_," Fury replied, but didn't say more as he turned for his office. "When they get here, send them to my office, if they don't automatically go there."

When Fury was halfway to his destination, he looked up and through the glass walls of his office he could see two people sitting in chairs, waiting for him. This was a side to one of his top agents that he'd never seen before and he hope she wasn't compromised. Trying to put on his best game face, he walked resolutely on. At least they were in his domain, he thought.

— — —

"I still can't believe you brought us straight here," she told him.

"You said that they'd know it was us after you used your code. I figured we didn't need to worry about everyone between there and here, so why not Apparate? It's not like he won't want to talk to you."

"Us; he'll want to talk to both of us."

Harry shrugged and looked over his shoulder. "Here he comes. He doesn't look pleased."

Natasha looked at him and smiled, her eyes laughing. "I can imagine." She didn't bother looking.

Fury walked into his office and closed the door. "That was a damn fool way to get into my office."

"It saved a lot of time though," Harry said calmly, trying to be accommodating - at least a little.

Fury studied both of them as he took a seat behind his desk before turning back to Harry. "A week ago, Agent Romanova strongly suggested I owe you an apology." He paused for a moment. "After some consideration, I've decided she had a point.

"Mr Potter, my job is to protect the world. It was made a whole lot harder the day you arrived. I was still a little keyed up when we met, so I'm afraid my manners weren't what they should have been. I hope you understand and we can put that behind us to work together in the future."

Fury opened a drawer in his desk to grab something and slid a few documents towards him. "Consider this a token of my sincerity and appreciation for your help that day."

Harry saw a small plastic card that said "Driver's License" on the top with his name. Under that was a small booklet about the size of his palm that said, "Passport". Next to both of those was a wallet that looked like the one Agent Hill had, just as Natasha had one. He opened it and inside was a badge that said, "Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division". The same picture had been used for all three and looked like one Natasha had taken of him with her phone.

Letting it sit on the desk, Harry nodded graciously. "I understand; you're right, it was a difficult day. Apology accepted. You didn't have to give me these, but I appreciate the gesture."

Fury nodded back. "I hope that if we have another alien invasion that I can count on you to help out?"

"Of course, Director," Harry agreed. "This is becoming my home and I'd like it to continue on."

"I appreciate your willingness." Fury turned his eye to his wayward employee. "Agent Romanova. When I told you to take a vacation, I didn't mean for you to be so … out of pocket."

"You told me to take Harry on vacation, to get to know him, help him get acclimated, so I did. That's a lot easier when it's just us," she answered easily.

"And what of your duty to SHIELD?" he asked with a hint of accusation.

"I did the essentials of my duty." She glanced at Harry. "I told you he repaired part of New York City. I told you his home world was a lot like ours, so you have some context for him. I also told you that he could do most anything he wanted with magic with some work, so you know his powers and capabilities. Beyond that, you can ask him yourself. I've found that if you're polite, he'll answer most questions.

"Director, you gave me a job about five years ago and I've never let you down. I'm sure you're taking exception to my method of carrying out my tasks, but in the field I choose how to do it. I appreciate your efforts on that side of the desk, please appreciate my efforts on this side."

Harry saw Fury look at her for a moment and then him for another moment. "Since he's not surprised at your statement, I gather you told him your mission."

"I did," she answered boldly. "I thought being truthful with him would help us understand each other better. I think that turned out to be a good decision. What do you think, Harry?"

"I agree. I had a lot more respect for you and was more willing to share with you when I realized you were trying to be honest with me," he replied.

Fury leaned back in his chair and scowled at both of them. "All right, what do you want? I can smell the snow from here."

Natasha smiled at Harry. "Told you." Back to Fury she said, "I'd like to scale back my involvement here. When you have an all-hands event, we'll both be there. If you find that you have a job that's absolutely vital and no one else has the ability to do it, give us a call."

"But we don't expect that to be more than about once every other month," Harry added. "And the house," he reminded her.

"Harry would like for us to continue to have access to the house on Long Island. He likes it. In exchange, you don't have to pay me a salary like you do now, just work expenses for our occasional job. Use of the house will suffice for a salary for the little bit of work that we do, and to be on retainer for the next set of aliens."

"You are one of the early members of the Avengers and one of my top agents, if not my top agent. That's taking a lot off the table," he argued.

"I could take a complete leave of absence," she pointed out, leaving Fury dumb-struck at the idea.

"Natasha wants to show me Tahiti, she says it's a magical place," Harry said after a moment. "I've only seen a few pictures and I can hardly wait to go. I never had the opportunity to travel before, so I'm sure there's a lot of brilliant places like that to see."

Fury rubbed his forehead for a moment, many of his ideas and plans being shot to hell the more they talked. "If I agree, will you at least leave your phone on? I can't send you information that you'll need for your occasional missions if I can't communicate with you. The same applies if more aliens show up."

Natasha smiled ever so slightly. "Of course, Director."

Shaking his head at his predicament that he had no counter for at the moment, the director opened another drawer. He slid a thin folder to her. "Since you're going that way, there's a Chinese syndicate in San Francisco that we're sure are bringing some significant arms into the US. However, no one has been able to prove it despite trying very hard for the last two years. I'd like you to get that proof. There's a contact for the local FBI office; work with them when you have the evidence and the criminals can be arrested."

She picked up the folder and flipped through it quickly. "This should only take a day or two if the information on their location is correct and if they have the weapons on site."

Fury sputtered for a moment before he managed, "Only a day or two? What has he done to you?"

Harry looked at Natasha, who looked at him. They both burst out laughing.

With a smirk, she told her superior, "I'm sorry, Director, but you're not cleared for that information. However, I can say that Harry has shown me that magic has a large number of practical uses in information gathering and other covert activities."

"Such as?" Fury sounded like he wanted to be "wowed".

Natasha stood, prompting Harry to do the same and grab his documents off the desk. She put her arm around his waist. "To be where you need to be, or to escape, when it's most convenient. Please tell Agent Hill that after tomorrow we won't be home for next month or two; therefore, if she wants to use the house during that time she can. Also tell her that she's forgiven if she remembers to contact me before she visits next time per our standing agreement that she so conveniently forgot about, and remind her there are more ways to contact me than to use my mobile phone. Let's go home, Harry. It looks like we have a trip to plan and pack for."

"Is San Francisco in California?" Harry asked.

"Yes, why?"

"That means we can stop in and see Tony and Pepper." Harry looked at his new boss, at least in a minimal way. "Until next time, Director."

Fury's jaw dropped when the couple left with a soft crack. He walked around and felt the space where they had been standing. There was nothing but air.

He decided he should call the FBI in San Francisco and let them know they'd be getting a call about their arms smuggling case in the next few days, or maybe sooner. He was going to have to rewrite some of his estimates on Harry Potter.

Deciding he better deliver this message sooner rather than later, he stuck his head out the door and called out, "Agent Hill!"

The upside of all of this was that he now had another "big gun" in his "weapons locker". On the downside, the loss of Agent Romanova's services fulltime was going to hurt. Fury thought he better start planning around that. He really wanted to blame Harry Potter for this loss, but he also considered that it would have come eventually in some form. He knew he had a lonely life.

(the end for now)

* * *

(A/N: I'm going to end it here, with Harry and Natasha forming a new team of their own, to work her independent insurance recovery job as well as to just travel the world, along with the occasional task from SHIELD for a little spice.

I don't know if I'll continue this or not. If I do, it'll be a separate story where they run into some interesting people, take down some criminal organizations (not just the criminals), probably affect some less than savory 3rd world countries, and travel to Asgard. Don't know if I would take on the Hydra thread in my own way or not. Also, while I know why Thor worked on his on in _The Dark World_ (he wanted his own movie), it seems to me that that story line in this universe would have him calling Harry for help not Loki, assuming I paid attention to that story. Someone also mentioned the "Agents of SHIELD" TV show and wondered if I'd work that in. I would consider that part of this universe and the idea is a good one; that's one of the few TV shows I like and follow, plus I am eagerly awaiting the new season. Like a show, I can keep extending this story line as much as I want.

When Fury said he could "smell the snow", he was referencing the idiom "a snow job".

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed something different for Harry. I enjoyed writing it.

For those wondering what might come next, odds are that it'll be another crossover, probably in a few weeks as the first draft is almost done. Looks like it'll be about half again larger than this story. - Kevin)


End file.
